


Beyond Fiction

by ZekeFreek



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Conspiracy, Corruption, Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Espionage, Gen, Metafiction, Multi, Mystery, Organized Crime, Post-Canon, Psychological Drama, Slow Romance, Survivor Guilt, Thriller, Unofficial Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2019-09-27 20:36:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 56,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17168966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZekeFreek/pseuds/ZekeFreek
Summary: A sequel story chronicling the survivors' journey into the outside world following the 53rd Season of Danganronpa. It continues to develop their characters while they encounter a cacophony of new faces in a world they've never known. They find themselves in the midst of various mysteries as they search for the full truth of their situation, discover what they want to do with their lives, and attempt to finish what they started by going up against Team Danganronpa, who pursues them relentlessly.(This story also re-purposes several Re;Birth characters into its narrative, along with many original characters.)





	1. Chaos Theory

**Author's Note:**

> (A/N: This prologue chapter is about Akira Tsuchiya and his part in ending Danganronpa from the outside. If you wish to skip straight to the survivor's escape, you can read the next chapter first and then hop back to this one. Otherwise, just read them in order.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Prologue Chapter**

**Chaos Theory**

_ Five Minutes Following Kiibo’s Sacrifice  _

The static of the television screen paints the solitary room in a dismal light. A figure sits cross-legged on a computer chair, rocking back and forth nervously. This was the result they had wanted… but not one they had ever expected. And now they had to face the current reality… it was proving to be more difficult than they had imagined it would be.

Many variables ran through their brain, all of them risky. 

There was a knock at the door.

“A-Akira! Open up! T-This is…. Things are getting really heated, man! Talk to me!”, a high voice called out as it banged on the door incessantly. 

The figure, Akira, reluctantly reached over and tapped a button on his desk. A clicking sound signified that the door had unlocked. It burst open, a stout young man rushing into the room with an exasperated expression. His arms flailed around wildly as he spoke.

“What are you d-doing, man!? This is it! This was the plan, wasn’t it!?”, he exclaimed, jabbing his finger at the television screen. 

The young man in the chair had messy blue hair and sunken eyes. He had a very homely appearance, wearing a black graphic t-shirt over a long-sleeve black-and-blue striped top. Simple black sweatpants with white vertical lines, and no socks. He preferred his feet be allowed to breathe. 

This shady youth was Akira Tsuchiya. And he was just now coming to terms with the fact he might’ve changed the world as he knew it. 

“G-Give me a minute, Kego… Dammit…”, he stuttered nervously.

The shorter boy shook the other’s shoulders. 

“They don’t  _ have _ a minute! T-They’re gonna be swarming them a-any moment now! Are we still on?”, Kego demanded, his expression uncertain.

Akira took a deep breath before kicking the chair closer to the desk. He cracked his knuckles and started whisking away at his keyboard. His eyes scanned all five of his monitors, keeping track of every piece of data that passed by it. He had to work fast… to take responsibility for what he had done.

* * *

 

_ Two Months Prior _

“W-Wait!”, Kego yelled, trying his best to keep up with his taller companion. The short man wore a brown hoodie with grey cargo pants, his hair fluffed up in a big green cloud of curls. He was not the most inconspicuous individual by any means, but anything less would’ve ‘sizzled his blaze’ as he might’ve said.

Akira steadily made his way up the hill, carrying a large sack on his back. His face was as determined as it was nervous. He had dragged Kego out here in the middle of the night and had neglected to mention the intricate details of what they were doing. 

“No time!”, he barked, “It’s gonna be here any minute now”.

“W-What, the truck? Already!?”, Kego yammered in disbelief.

The two of them placed their bags on the top of the hill and started unpacking various things. Akira tossed a pair of goggles to Kego, “Here, keep lookout”, he instructed. Kego activated the thermal function and stuck the device to his eyes, peering out to one side of the highway in front of them.

“W-What am I supposed to be looking for?”, he whined.

“A big MonoCo logo on the side? Sixteen heat signatures in the trailer? Come on, use your head”, Akira answered, rifling through his pack, checking for everything he would need. 

“My head is for spinning discs… n-not whatever this is”, Kego remarked.

“Look, I need you to do recon tonight, okay? I’ll… make it worth your while”, Akira suggested, looking over a piece of equipment.

“You always say that! J-Just because you’re in a charge of the building doesn’t mean you can just d-drag me out on these… aah! I see it! It’s coming down the freeway!”, Kego shouted, passing Akira the goggles. 

With his own eyes, he verified it. The cargo truck was peeking over the horizon… he had precious little time left to prepare.

Akira tossed the goggles back, along with an earpiece. 

“Take this so we stay in touch. I’m leaving you the laptop, when I’m gone, take a cab to… this address”, he said, jotting something down on a scrap of paper and shoving into Kego’s hand. 

“W-Wait gone? Where are you go--”, he asked, but his question was almost immediately answered.

Akira zipped up the pack, slung it over his shoulders and made a dash for the highway, pulling on a pair of thick gloves as he ran. He took a deep breath as his legs kept going, not letting himself lose any momentum…

As he leapt straight into traffic.

He pushed out his hands desperately and managed to slam them onto the wall of the semi-trailer. The dormant neon lines in the gloves activated as they secured themselves to the truck. Akira lifted up his legs and pressed them against the wall, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Speaking into his earpiece mic, he declared, “O-Okay… I’m… I’m on the truck”.

“YEAH I CAN SEE THAT DUDE, WHAT THE F--”, Kego screamed back, a nearby foghorn cutting him off. 

“C-Couldn’t quite catch that! Anyway… making my way to the underside…”, he replied as he carefully started crawling down beneath the truck. Thankfully there was plenty of the space between the bottom of the trailer and the rapidly moving asphalt that threatened to sandpaper his face off should he touch it.

“I-Isn’t like… really hot under those?”, Kego inquired.

“Normally…”, Akira answered, grabbing hold of the pipes below, “But this is a cryo-freezer, and the exhaust is on top”. He positioned himself on top of several interlacing pipes like it was a makeshift hammock. 

“Okay okay… uh… I’m calling that cab now. T-The… Hitsugazi Hotel, right?”, Kego asked, his breathing unsteady and terrified. 

“Yeah, rent a room, the higher the better and set up there”, he told him. 

“Eh, if I recall right… that hotel is…”, Kego began.

“Y-Yeah! It’s on the same block as the facility, they even share the same service tunnels, though that’s all blocked off now”, he answered the question he knew was coming.

“This is a b-business expense, right?”, Kego asked, scared it was coming out of his pay. 

“Uh, sure…”, Akira stated with an audible gulp.

“...We  _ do _ have enough for this, right?”, Kego asked with the sound of him opening a cab door. 

“...P-Probably”, Akira admitted sheepishly.

The world’s longest sigh ensued from the other end of the line.

“You realize this is the craziest thing you’ve ever done, right?”, Kego asked, the pinching of his temples audible. Akira gulped nervously as he tried not to look at the ground beneath him.

“Don’t remind me… don’t remind me…”, he muttered.

“Why are we even doing this? What even happened? Does… does it have to do with--”, Kego started questioning before he was cut off.

“...Y-Yeah”, Akira confirmed.

Kego sighed once more, “You can’t let go, can you?”.

The cold air whipped by as the flashes of passing vehicles lit up the underside of the truck in short frantic intervals. Akira mentally went over the plan in his head several times as he was carried along the freeway. 

“The setting this year is called the Gifted Inmates Academy… an abandoned educational facility inside one of those old habitation spheres. Apparently it’s going to be renovated on-site as the season progresses”, Kego informed him, reading off stolen files.

“Demand is at an all-time high, I guess, if they aren’t even bothering to finish the set before filming”, Akira surmised. 

“You really think this is gonna stop it? I m-mean, I just can’t picture it”, Kego said.

“Let’s call it… shaking up the formula and seeing what happens”, Akira answered, shrugging it off.

“Geez… all this and you’re still gambling”

“It’s gotta happen from within… probably”

“If you say so, man”

After some time, the truck diverged from the highway and pulled onto a long dirt road, passing several gated checkpoints. Akira tried to keep his breathing as still as one could reasonably expect it to be when dangling on the underside of a moving vehicle. 

Eventually, the truck came to a stop inside some kind of loading bay. Akira could hear the driver and his coworker exit the cabin and walk around the side of the cryo-unit. They were laughing boisterously as they threw open the doors. 

“I’m telling you man, one of these chicks has massive honkers, you’ll see”, one of the employees bragged, “Ninety-nine centimeters, measured it myself for the log”. 

His fellow let out a chuckle, “What, you feel’em up while you were doing that too? Want some alone time?”, they commented dismissively. 

The driver slugged him on the arm, “Man, fuck off”, he replied jovially. 

One by one, the cryo-pods were loaded out of the truck and wheeled into another chamber. The employees joked along as they hooked up various cables and began the reprogramming sequence from a terminal. When they were finished, which took nearly an hour, they checked out the back exit, locking the door behind them.

Poking his head out to make sure the coast was clear, Akira finally slid out from under the trailer, cracking his now stiff neck. He glanced over at the door to the storage chamber, noticing it was under a keypad lock. He tapped his earpiece and began to speak.

“Okay, finally ready to move… you set up yet?”, he said.

“Uh… y-yeah just a sec…”, Kego responded nervously.

“I’ve already pre-cracked the camera feed, you should be able to see me now”, Akira told him. 

Kego was currently setting up a laptop in front of the wide window of his hotel room, issuing a command to open the facility’s security camera feed. Akira gave him a half-hearted wave from the other side as a check.

“O-Okay yeah! I got you! Uh… isn’t this a problem though? You’re on their feed”, he told him.

“We’re replacing this with a loop. It’s gonna be fine”, Akira reassured him, making his way to the door.

The keypad required a 5-digit code to open the door. Under most circumstances, Akira would’ve simply hacked the device… but he felt it was unnecessary in this case. 

Without any hesitation he simply entered 1 1 0 3 7.

ACCESS GRANTED.

“Pfft, of course”, he mocked under his breath. Tradition trumps proper security.

“Really? That’s like the Danganronpa equivalent of leaving your password as ‘password’...”, Kego commented over the mic.

Akira pulled open the door and slipped into the storage chamber, a long hall of ostensible human trophies. Eight pods lined the wall on both sides, with a single computer terminal overseeing them all. 

He took a quick stroll around the room, noting all the future contestants with a melancholy demeanor. “Heh… cute girls… cool guys… it’s a Danganronpa cast alright”, he mused apathetically. 

His feet stopped at one pod in particular, looking into the frosted glass with peculiar interest. Akira crossed his arms and sighed, shaking his head. “So… you actually went and signed up, huh”, he muttered.

“Hm? You know one of these guys?”, Kego asked.

“Not anymore”, he answered coldly, leering at the display panel next to the pod. 

“Shuichi Saihara… that’s what they’re calling you now huh? Well, it has a ring to it atleast”, he said, turning away. He didn’t have time to look over everyone in detail, they all had their reasons for throwing away their lives. Akira wouldn’t judge… but they were about to become his instruments now… in a way.

He took a seat at the terminal and began pulling up all the raw data on the reprogramming procedure. The process that would erase their current selves and replace them with newly crafted fictional identities. He couldn’t see exactly what that entailed… the interface wasn’t user-friendly to say the least.

But he was able to do what he came to do. He started flipping through all the files and rewriting variables at random. Not by huge amounts, but enough to throw off the delicate balance they were attempting. It was impossible to tell from this alone how they would be altered from the original intention. 

Perhaps in big obvious ways? Maybe in small subtle ways? 

Akira suspected nobody would know until it snowballed into something even greater. That was the idea at any rate, he had told himself. To throw off the game in ways not even its overseers would recognize until it was too late for them to intervene. 

By the same token, it was difficult for him to know when to stop altering the code. But after awhile, he decided it appeared sufficiently different from the starting points, so he exited the compiler and stood to his feet. 

“Okay, but now what? How are you doing to get out of there? There’s twenty meter fences surrounding the entire facility! A-And not to mention roving patrols!”, Kego warned. 

“You know those old service tunnels?”, Akira inquired.

“Oh… don’t tell me”, Kego shot back.

Akira only smirked as he made his way back through the loading bay and through several winding hallways. Chrome with black tint, creating a futuristic and oppressive atmosphere. Every now and then he passed a small statue of Monokuma on a pedestal, looking smug in some cartoonish pose. 

“Hey, this has been pretty easy, right? Am I alone in thinking that? Why is security so lax here?”, Kego asked, his eyes darting over the screen, paranoid about any sudden complications.

Akira slid down to a ventilation access port and pulled it open with the maintenance lever. Being careful to close the lid behind him before any night guard happened to walk by. One methodical inch at a time, he began to crawl through the air ducts on all fours. 

“Well… everyone loves Danganronpa, right? Can’t imagine MonoCo would ever think someone would even  _ want  _ to sabotage it?”, Akira reasoned. 

“ _ I _ can’t even imagine that! Why are we even doing this!? I thought you were as big a fan as anyone!”, Kego shot back.

“...”, Akira did not respond. He simply kept crawling, keeping his thoughts to himself. One day, Kego would understand. Until then, it was better to just leave it be.

He reached a cross-section that lead further down. It was awkward and uncomfortable to twist himself around enough to step foot on the service ladder. Climbing down, he had to wipe his palms against his jacket. They were understandably sweaty from the adrenaline rush he was feeling right now, masking any fear.

Dropping down onto the concrete floor of the tunnel, he suddenly heard a noise that he didn’t expect. And without warning, his palms got way sweatier in an instant. For what he heard was…

_ Growling _ .

Jerking his head backward as fast as possible, he saw them. A pair of ravenous looking hounds, looking up from their recently finished meal with enraged eyes. Without thinking, Akira bolted in the opposite direction as quickly as his unfit nerd legs would carry him. 

It took everything he had not to scream as the dogs gave chase through the bleak service tunnel. Steam filled the chamber from vents along the walls, obscuring his vision as he continued onward. The dogs growled and howled as they started gaining on the boy with their superior speed. 

Akira reach back and dug around in his backpack for the one thing that might be able to save him. He had brought it along for emergencies just like this… although he had imagined using it on a person and not a canine. But just as he managed to find it, one of said canines tackled him to the ground, causing the object to fall just out of reach.

“W-What’s happening!? Akira!? Answer me!!”, Kego screamed in his ear. Akira mentally wished he would shut up so he could focus, reaching for the object desperately as the dog took a vicious bite of his leg. 

He grit his teeth and internally shrieked as his eyes began to water… he could already feel the blood gushing out. He kicked at the dog with his other leg to no avail… so he started kicking at the wall instead, trying to propel himself further away.

These dogs would chew him apart in mere seconds… he needed to grab the… 

“FUCK YES!”, he shouted in a rage as he obtained and thrust the object as the dog’s neck. With the press of a button, the dog’s eyes bulged out of its skull and it instinctively let go of the boy’s leg. A second later, it was lying on the ground unconscious, drool spilling over the floor.

Akira leapt to his feet and waved the device at the other dog as it approached and skidded to a stop. “YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS, YOU FUCKING MUTT!?”, he called out holding the weapon out before him with a warning click.

The dog was not capable of sensing the danger beyond a surface level, so it simply ignored its fallen compatriot and rushed at the boy fang-first. Akira swung underhand and connected the device to the hound’s soft underbelly. The reaction was similar as it fell to the ground, writhing in pain before passing out.

Akira stumbled over and gave both dogs a vindictive kick to their ugly faces as he spat on them. He suddenly collapsed to the ground and scooted his back against the wall. Hesitantly, he tapped his earpiece. 

“Arggh… I’m h-here… fuuuuck this hurts”, Akira groaned as he took several deep breaths. Apparently adrenaline could only carry one so far in these situations…

“W-What happened!? There aren’t any camera down there s-so I couldn’t see!”, Kego explained in a panic.

“F-Fucking dogs… they have f-fucking dogs down here… one of them bit me good… aaarrggh… I managed to knock them out though… thank fuck…”, Akira grunted out the words with a wince, pulling up his pant leg to see the damage.

Blood was pouring down his leg from multiple puncture points. Akira pulled out a roll of gauze from his pack… another thing he had hoped he wouldn’t have to use. He hastily wrapped it around his shin and cut it off tight. 

He took a good look at the stun gun in his hand… and was ever so grateful he’d brought it along. After a moment’s rest, he picked himself up and started limping down the tunnel towards the hotel.

There were obstacles of course. He had to force himself under a chain-link fence and pick the lock on an old door, but otherwise there was no issue. After that, it was a simple matter of sneaking through the hotel basement until he reached the elevator. Once he found Kego’s room, he simply collapsed on the ground after opening the door. 

“A-Akira!? Hold on!”, Kego shouted in concern as he hoisted the boy on his tiny shoulder and dragged him onto the bed. The most surprising thing was that Akira was grinning like a madman as he lie there in pain.

He’d done his part… the rest was up to them. As for what would happen next… the entire world would have to wait and see. Those were his last thought as he passed out from exertion. 

Kego shook his head as he closed the laptop lid. 

“Why’d I ever get stuck with someone this insane…”, he pondered to himself.

* * *

 

_ Present Time _

Meanwhile… in the wreckage of the Gifted Inmate’s Academy… a small black orb began to glow an ominous white light… whatever it meant… whatever it was… it would surely be important. 

**CHAPTER 0**

**END**


	2. Remnants of Hope

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter One**

**Remnants of Hope**

_ Several Months Ago… _

“Another exciting climax! Hope prevails again!”, someone shouted energetically. Truthfully, it didn’t matter in the slightest who had spoken, as the sentiment was undeniably popular and oft repeated.

Sitting by himself in the lobby of the crowded arcade complex, Akira groaned as the masses around him were all excitedly huddled around the various holographic displays floating amidst the halls. Season 52 of Danganronpa had just reached its conclusion, and content enthusiasm filled the air.

The scene flashed as the channel was changed, flickering to an interview with the season’s survivor, Rantarou Amami. The host, a bespectacled blue-haired woman, sat across from the man in a plush loveseat. He seemed visibly tired, no doubt wanting to just curl up in a nice, warm, cryogenic sleep pod. 

“So, what are your feelings about being a contender in the 53rd season of Danganronpa?”.

Scratching his head, he let out a sigh, before flashing a cordial smile. “If I can do it once, I can probably do it again”.

“That’s what we liked to hear! Any lingering sentiments from, arguably, our fan favorite of the season?”.

“I guess if I have to say something…”, he turned to the camera, his face steeled. “It would be to live like everyday is a gift”.  
  
Pressing a finger to her chin, the host let out a small ‘hmm’. “Is that for the new cast? Or our viewers, perhaps?”.  
  
With a shrug, Rantarou grinned, amused. “Who knows?”

Within mere moments, an advertisement was being shown proudly. 

**‘Danganronpa V3 Production Confirmed!**

**Who Will Join The Next Blood-Curdling Installment?**

**It Could Be YOU!’**

And other such enticing proclamations.

Akira sighed, “...It’s like clockwork”.

“Y-Yeah! I know, right? So cool…”, someone beside him chirped up unexpectedly. Akira turned his attention to his peer, a rather disheveled fellow with greasy hair and pale skin. He could not quite make out his face, as the stranger hid it underneath a dark baseball cap.

Akira decided to ignore that the other boy had completely misinterpreted his sultry remark. 

“You certainly look like a big fan… wait, aren’t you from Class 2-A?”, he told him, suddenly recognizing this boy’s reserved appearance. Akira didn’t attend class often, it wasn’t in his nature. But he had always had a penchant for remembering people.

“Huh? Y-Yeah… so? I’m skipping today, what of it? T-This should be a national holiday or something… not my f-fault”, the boy stammered, making excuses.

A national holiday for the season finale of a TV show? Well, if any show could pull that off, it would be Danganronpa…

Akira gradually put the pieces together though.

“Ah, I see… you’re here for one of those audition kits, aren’t you? The ones they pass out in the Danganronpa annex…”, he surmised curtly.

“O-Of course… I’m finally a highschool student so I’m eligible to be on the show… I’ve been waiting for my whole l-life for this…”, the boy explained, nearly salivating at the thought.

Akira rolled his eyes, this guy was a slave to the series.

“I suppose it’s a waste telling you that you’re signing up to die…”, he mumbled, glancing away towards the talkative crowds. 

“...It’s not like I have anything worth living for anyway. My grades suck so I’ll never get into a good college, girls think I’m weird and my uncle just uses me as an errand boy-slash-punching bag for his drinking problem… besides… there’s nothing worth dying for like Danganronpa… it’s the greatest show in the world!”, the boy ranted, his palms growing sweaty.

Akira winced slightly at that last remark. These were all words he had heard before… he might’ve even said them himself at one point. But now it was different.

He stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“Well, good luck I suppose… I hope you get what you want”, he stated coldly as he passed the strange boy. 

His peer was barely listening anymore though, his eyes were fixated on the displays. Monokuma himself reaching out a hand to any aspiring applicants. 

“I hope so too… I hope I get in… to be a part of something so great would mean everything to me…”, he muttered under his breath. 

It was as if the entire world grew silent as the boy become deeply entrenched in the fantasy of becoming a character in his favorite series where reality slipped away… and fiction came alive.

_ “I hope Danganronpa never ends…”. _

* * *

 

_ Present Time _

_ Danganronpa was over. _

It was as if a movie had jump cut between two visually similar scenes with vastly different emotional and thematic contexts behind them. Shuichi now stood at the precipice between fiction and reality, only a forty foot climb stopping his ascent. 

A sense of closure for the events he had just experienced passed over his entire being, ironically not so dissimilar to finishing a lengthy and emotional entertainment product… but the depth of those feelings was so much more palpable. 

A moment’s pause was needed to take in this sensation, for him and his remaining companions. The ordeal that they had endured the past three weeks had reached its explosive conclusion. But it was so much more than that. It was as if everything they had ever known had come to a close…

_ Because it had. _

The killing game was all they had ever truly known. It was all they were ever meant for, as fictional constructs of a depraved world. They were born, so to speak, for the sole purpose of suffering and ultimately dying in service to the violent cycle of false hope. 

But at long last, that cycle had been broken. 

True hope, which the world had long forgotten, had risen from the ashes of the despair and anguish that the killing games had wrought. A world so twisted as to accept bloodshed and death as salvation… that was the world they had chosen to leave behind in favor of blissful fantasy. 

But that fantasy had a price… signing away their very lives.

How many had fallen prey to this endless bloody spectacle?

It was not a comforting thought, but as Shuichi looked on at the hope that their fallen friend had created for them… he thought that maybe all of those victims… might finally have solace for their sacrifice. At the very least, he wondered if his lost classmates were smiling.

But even though the story was at its end… life had to go on.

What sort of life would await them on the other side?

To know that, they would have to get there first.

“Nyaa… the hole is so far up…”, Himiko whined, biting her lip as her face filled with uncertainty. 

“Before anything else, we need to find some way to get up there”, Maki stated firmly, biting her thumb in contemplation. 

“Right, we can’t relax just yet…”, Shuichi affirmed with a sigh, not biting anything. Even after all of his internal postulation, there was still such a simplistic obstacle between them and the freedom they had been seeking this whole time. 

The three of them glanced around the wreckage of the glorified television set they’d been forced to call home. What could they possibly utilize to escape the dome for good?

“Huh… this is troubling. I’m not even sure where to begin? Should we pack? If so… what?”, Shuichi mumbled aloud, placing a thoughtful finger to his chin.

“It’s impossible to know what to expect. In my experience, it’s better to travel light and find what you need rather than weighing yourself down with stuff you might not”, Maki suggested sternly.

Even as she spoke, she wondered if her own ‘experience’ was even valid. Her training and expertise were all fabricated, afterall. 

Still, it seemed like sound enough reasoning. 

“I wish I could fly us up there… but I’m not very confident in my magic anymore…”, Himiko bemoaned, glancing at the ground with a disappointed expression. 

Something about that stung, to see such a strong belief weakened.

“Clearing the rubble to look for anything useful would take forever, and I think it would be smart to move as soon as possible”, Maki warned, crossing her arms at the enormous mound of stone and steel.

“Yeah… I have to agree. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but sticking around here can’t be good for us”, Shuichi said, imagining the possibilities. The audience might have let them go, but he had doubts the organizers would feel the same way.

As he said that, his stomach let out a loud growl.

It suddenly dawned on the three of them just how long they had gone without a meal, or even slept. It was high noon, and they had been awake since dawn the previous day. So much had happened in that time that each one of them was starting to feel the fatigue.

But they could not rest yet.

“Ah… I’m completely out of mana too…”, Himiko moped, shuddering as if her lack of energy made it colder… or perhaps the hole in the dome was letting in a draft that hadn’t existed before?

Maki took a glance in the direction of the collapsed school building. “There’s no telling when we’ll get to eat again… we should see if any food is still edible”, she said.

“I-I’ll search the Dining Hall!”, Himiko shot up eagerly.

“Wait, I’ll go with you. The building doesn’t exactly look… stable anymore”, Shuichi argued, his face looking discomforted at the sight of the mangled rubble.

“...T-That’s true, I wouldn’t want to get stuck again”, Himiko admitted, recalling the time earlier that day when she totally didn’t panic when trapped in the secret room. 

Shuichi let out a slight chuckle, “Just make sure I don’t get stuck either, okay?”. The girl nodded, the tension lowering a bit.

“In the meanwhile, I’ll be looking for a way to get through that hole”, Maki added, putting on a serious air. 

“Maki-roll’s gonna get us through that hole!”, Himiko exclaimed excitedly, in an almost sing-songy tone. 

Giving her a slight glare, Maki chided, “I’ll just assume you were too nutrient-deprived to know what you were saying”. Himiko stepped back in fear.

“Ha… I’m s-still not used to her sense of humor”, she stuttered.

“If it makes you feel better, I’m not sure I am either”, Shuichi said comfortingly. Maki turned away with the smallest hint of a smirk and began searching the scattered wreckage.

The other two made their way back inside the demolished school building… well, ‘inside’ is a relative term. It was more like they entered the space once occupied by the school building, which now housed large piles of broken concrete and twisted bundles of metal framework. 

“Ah, Himiko, watch your step… this part is flooded. We should try and go around it”, Shuichi warned, pointing ahead. It appeared the plumbing around the first floor bathroom had burst, spilling liquid all over the hallway. The pair instead hopped onto an elevated line of desks to the side. They had apparently rolled through after the walls dividing the classrooms broke apart.

Thankfully, it was just ordinary water and not… anything more unpleasant. Something that Miu would’ve no doubt made some crass remark over. 

Trying to keep their balance, they walked along the desks, hands surfing the the wall to steady themselves. Step by step, they made their way across while observing the destruction around them. It was an odd feeling that filled them… this place had been their home… but also their prison.

In truth, it was the only place they’d ever really known.

“Nyaa… I don’t know if I should feel sad or not”, Himiko admitted, biting her lip.

“....Yeah”, Shuichi stated, lowering himself off the last desk.

As Himiko stepped off, her foot made contract with a slippery patch and she fell backward into the water. Shuichi’s reflexes shot his hand out just in time to grab her by the wrist and pull her forward.

“Aaagh… T-Thanks”, she muttered.

He nodded and led her down the remainder of the hallway, wherein they stepped over chunks of debris as they made their way to the ruins of the Dining Hall. There was no need to pull the door open… it was already on the floor… and in about six pieces.

A large boulder had crashed onto the long center table, splitting their former eating surface clean in two. A spotlight shone upon it from a hole in the ceiling, which lit the room in lieu of electrical lighting. The chairs had scattered across the room at random.

Himiko had a sullen look on her face as she surveyed the area.

“Hey Shuichi… we first met right here, right?”.

“Huh? I guess we did, now that you mention it…”.

“...Back then, we didn’t have a clue, huh”.

“No… we didn’t. We couldn’t have even imagined what the truth of our situation was…”.

“I didn’t think you’d turn out to be someone so reliable… Ah! Sorry…”.

“It’s okay, Himiko... I wouldn’t have believed you if you did, to be honest…”.

Himiko looked like she wanted to say something else, but simply shook her head and charged forward toward the kitchen. Shuichi strolled after her, taken aback by her increased vigor.

He nearly stumbled over the medley of pots and pans knocked about. None of the equipment lights were on, which meant…

“We’re not gonna be able to cook anything so…”.

“Ah! I’ll check the pantry!”, Himiko shot up.

After a few moments of rummaging, they ended up with a pot full of packaged snacks and bottled tea. Shuichi shrugged, it was certainly food and that was what mattered. He offered to carry it, but for some reason Himiko insisted upon doing it herself. Although she reluctantly let him help her as they crossed back over the flooded area.

“I want the green tea”, she said as they passed back through what was left of the entrance hall.

“Hm, you sure you wouldn’t prefer the cold coffee? We might not get to rest for awhile yet”, Shuichi suggested.

“Eh, I’ll try it… if you think that’s for the best”, she replied unenthusiastically. 

“No no, you don’t have to force yourself if you don’t like it”, Shuichi reassured her.

“I’m trying it!”, she boasted, reaching in the pot and pulling out a can of cold coffee. She stared it down for a brief moment before pulling the tab and downing a hearty gulp.

It was clear from her expression that she wasn’t the biggest fan.

She swallowed it in a single attempt, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Heh… you want your tea?”, he asked innocently.

Himiko puffed her cheeks slightly, “...Yes”.

Taking the bottled green tea from his grasp, she casually chucked the still-full can of cold coffee to the ground behind her. With a clink and splash, it was forgotten, never to be relevant to anything again. Ever.

Dropping the pot in the center of the courtyard, the pair called out for their third as they took seats on the stone steps leading up to what was at one time a gazebo. They started chomping away at protein bars and fruit gummies. It wasn’t particularly filling, but it was calories. 

Within moments, Maki had returned with a contemplative look on her face. She had her arms crossed as she approached, a sure sign of deep thought if there ever was.

“Sorry, this is all we could find. There were some raw ingredients but they were coated in rubble”, Shuichi told her.

“That’s fine. It just needs to be something to keep us going… is there cold coffee?”, Maki replied, taking a seat beside them.

Shuichi reached into the pot and pulled out a can to hand to her.

“Nyaa… you guys are such adults”, Himiko complained.

“Hardly, we’re just used to th--”, Maki began before cutting herself off with a frown.

Shuichi caught on and gazed down at his own drink. 

“We say that but… we never got used to anything. Even our tastes were likely implanted…”, he reasoned. It was disturbing to think that even mundane preferences could be fabricated.  

“Whatever”, Maki said bluntly, “I don’t care if they decided something like that”.

“Y-Yeah! I’ll drink this tea because I want to! Not because they told me to!”, Himiko declared, taking a big swig of her green tea. She was a little too gung-ho however and ended up having to cough it out.

“I mean, it’s just tea… but I understand the principle”, Shuichi added.

Before long, attention turned to the unsolved problem they faced.

“Maki, did you find anything we could use to get out of here?”, Shuichi asked firmly, a sense of responsibility rising within him.

She had a… complex expression as she answered.

“M-Maybe…”.

“Huh? You found something!?”, Himiko demanded energetically. 

“Well… I’ll show you”, Maki decided, finishing her food.

They were led through the wreckage, down the shattered stairs and across the field to where the hangar bay was. The building was in much better shape than most of the academy, due to its no doubt sturdier construction. The exterior was charred but otherwise intact.

Shuichi caught on as they traversed the winding corridors. “Are you thinking we can use the Exisals to get out of here?”, he asked.

“I didn’t see them outside so I wondered if Monokuma had moved them back to the hangar. Turns out, the Exisals were running on fumes by the time you called the trial”, she explained.

“Kiibo must’ve really done a number on them…”, Himiko mused.

As they reached the Exisal Bay, they discovered the shutter door had been left open when the power went offline. It was convenient for them that Monokuma had overlooked this when preparing for the final trial. Had he been more cautious, getting the door open without electricity may have proven impossible.

“As you can see, they’re all hooked up for repairs”, Maki stated, glancing at the five killing machines docked in their respective chambers. Memories of seeing them in action sprung to Shuichi’s mind as he gazes upon them.

“That’s right… one of these could easily leap up through the hole and carry us out!”, he realized excitedly.

“But… if they need repairs, we can’t use them, can we?”, Himiko bemoaned, biting her lip.

“These diagnostic terminals run off battery power, so I looked over the damage reports”, Maki explained, gesturing to one such terminal located in front of the Exisal docket, “Every one of them has basically been rendered inoperable… except this red one”.

All eyes turned to Monotarou’s former battle vessel.

Shuichi looked over the report on the display carefully, “It says here that its missing a secondary motor-control module… but otherwise is just low on power”, he said.

“Right. It runs, but it’ll just spaz out randomly if we try it without that module”, Maki added.

“Wait… this is the one that got knocked into the basement wall, isn’t it? Maybe that part fell off! Maybe it’s still there!”, Himiko realized, nearly jumping.

“If it is, let’s hope its still functional”, Maki warned cynically.

“Only one way to find out”, Shuichi affirmed.

The trio crossed back through the width of the academy grounds to make it back inside the main school building. Nobody was particularly enthusiastic about going into the basement of a structure that was barely standing, but their willingness dampened severely when they actually cleared a path to the stairs.

Water was leaking rapidly from the first floor bathroom pipes into the basement, and loose electrical wiring was swinging around freely. The entire area had been turned into a dark, wet deathtrap lying in wait for any unsuspecting survivor to enter.

“This is the worst possible place that stupid bear could’ve left the module…”, Maki groaned, in dismay of the obstacle before them.

“S-Shuichi! Use your super detective brain to solve this!”, Himiko commanded, pointing to the boy dramatically.

He sighed deeply, “Even if you say that…”.

There was a moment of silence after that disparaging comment… if not for that, then they might have missed something important. Maki turned her head back up the stairwell with a troubled look.

“Do you hear that…?”, she whispered, cautiously crouching up step by step. The other two, made nervous by her sudden shift in behavior, nevertheless followed her lead and crept back to the first floor, eyes peeled for anything suspicious.

When they made it to a window, the three of them crowded around it but made sure they weren’t visible from the outside. All of their faces turned white and sullen as they realized what was going on. Just outside the window, in the middle of the courtyard… were people.

Three adult men stood in a line, dressed in black combat attire as a fourth one paced in front of them. They had dropped into the dome from a cable that dangled from the hole above. Each one of these soldiers was armed with a tactical handgun.

Shuichi felt his heart pounding against his ribcage as he tried to keep his breathing as silent as possible. He had been afraid of this… they’d missed their window to escape. Team Danganronpa had already dispatched people to deal with them.

Himiko was shivering as she lightly tapped his shoulder.

“S-Shuichi…”, she murmured, her tone shaken, “W-What are we gonna d-do?”.

His mind started racing as fast it could, considering every angle of the current scenario. Four armed men outside… whether their orders were to capture or kill didn’t matter, it would be the end for them if they did. The cable… could they climb it? No… even if they could make it that far, they’d be slow, easy targets for experienced shots.

The Exisal… they could fight them off and escape. Even highly-trained combatants couldn’t take on an Exisal with mere handguns… but they needed the motor-control module to operate it safely… and it was sitting inside a bonafide kill zone. No matter how he ran the simulations in his head, it didn’t matter.

Every possible route led to their demise… was this it? Had they survived the killing game and ended Danganronpa itself just to lose their lives here? Never even reaching the outside world? Was there truly no way to escape…? Was it… impossib--

A voice shot through his mind, clearing away all distractions. 

An overpowering presence, like a light shone in a vast sea of darkness.

‘ _ Don’t forget! The impossible is possible! All you have to do is make it so! _ ’

Suddenly, the pieces connected. 

All of the confidence he had been building this whole time…

The stage was set for it to be put to the test.

Shuichi glanced back out the window. The soldiers were talking amongst themselves, but they were too far to hear anything in particular. It wouldn’t be long until they decided to investigate further.

“You look like you have a plan… spill it”, Maki ordered, her eyes not leaving the window as she spoke.

“Ah… yeah, kinda”, he admitted, “But I’m not sure about it…”.

“No matter what it is, it has to be better than waiting here to get shot”, was her candid retort.

“There are protective suits… but they’re in Kaito’s lab”, he said firmly.

Their faces were full of concern as he said that. Kaito’s lab was all the way on the fifth floor, and required the use of a particular stairway to even enter it. There wasn’t even a guarantee that part of the building was even still standing.

Still, nobody could argue that it was their best shot at obtaining the missing module. 

Maki sighed, “Fine, but we’re going together… quietly”.

“W-Why are you looking at me? I’m u-usually quiet…”, Himiko stammered, fearfully.

The group traversed the entrance hall, ducking behind rubble for cover just in case the soldiers were looking in their direction or entered expectedly. They remained low to the ground as they made their way through the twisting halls towards the back of the first floor. 

Once they reached the familiar checkerboard door, they peered inside. The door nearly fell off its hinge when they pried it open but Shuichi managed to hold it in place. The spiral stairway was far more daunting than they remembered it ever being.

The walls along the edge were cracked, and several metal steps had fallen to the ground below. But despite everything, it looked climbable. Shuichi breathed a sigh of relief that the back tower hadn’t simply fallen over. If the protective suit had been lost in a mountain of rubble, they would’ve had a much harder time locating it.

“One of the suits offers electrical insulation, I remember from when we were investigating his lab”, he explained.

Maki surveyed the structural integrity of the area carefully.

“Shuichi, I don’t trust the look of those stairs. I think you should go alone”, she told him sternly.

Judging with his own eyes, Shuichi couldn’t help but agree, although his stomach dropped at the thought. “Y-Yeah… too much added weight could be bad”.

“I-I’m no good with h-heights… I might fall over even if the stairs didn’t break”, Himiko admitted, her face pale from imagining it.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got this”, Shuichi reassured her.

“Himiko and I will keep lookout down here”, Maki said.

“Maki… if those guys get in here…”, he began.

“Shuichi… I’m an assassin, not a soldier. I’ll do what I have to, if that’s what it comes to”, she stated coldly, her eyes filled with intensity. A killer was not necessarily a fighter, that much was true.

He bit his lip, he didn’t like that answer but knew it was the best they had. They knew now that Maki had never truly killed anyone in her life… he would hate it if she had to start now. Knowing that she could be free of that weight on her shoulders…

Those thoughts were far too numerous to communicate at that moment however.

“Alright”, was his stock reply, “C-Could you give me a boost here?”.

Maki bent down, folded her hands together, allowed him to step up on them, then thrust him upward as he kicked off the wall. Grabbing the rails, Shuichi pulled himself up onto the stairway. 

“Stay safe, guys. I’ll be back down soon”, he said simply, as he began climbing the stairs. The girls watched from below as he hopped over missing steps, clung to the railing to pull himself forward and carefully ascended the obstacles.

As she saw Shuichi stumble a little on a tricky jump, Himiko struck her palm with her fist. “Nyaa! There are mats in the gym we could set up in here in case he falls!”, she suggested.

Maki pondered this for a moment. “The gym is pretty close… maybe we could… but dragging it along the ground would make a lot of noise…”.

Himiko sighed, “It would take most of my mana but… I think I can lift it off the ground if you helped… maybe”.

The assassin poked her head into the hallway for a brief instant, but did not see or hear anything dangerous. Were the soldiers checking outside in the other areas first?

Looking back at the other girl’s eager eyes, she nodded reluctantly. “Alright, if it makes you feel better”.

With that understanding, they silently tiptoed across the wrecked corridor towards the gym, which had a massive crack splitting it in twain, stretching from corner to corner. 

“C-Careful, if we step on that, we’ll break our mothers’ backs”, Himiko joked nervously, hopping over the gap. 

Biting her lip, Maki replied dryly, “Up until two hours ago, I didn’t even think I had a mother… and now I don’t even know”.

“Do you… think we have families out there? Ones we don’t remember?”.

“Even if we do… it might be better if they stay forgotten”.

“What do you mean?”.

“What kind of family lets their child sign up for a killing game? Not one I want to be a part of”.

“But Shuichi said we might have been kidnapped after all…”.

“Maybe, maybe not… We should focus on getting out of here first”.

“Ah… You’re right”.

“Now be quiet and help me carry this thing”.

With some mild difficulty, the two girls managed to carry the big folded safety mat out of the gym and across the way back. As they pushed open the checkered door again however, they came across something they had hoped to avoid.

One of the soldiers was peering up the tower, on the lookout for his marks… when two of them happened to burst in behind him. With a quick, highly trained pivot, he blind-fired in their direction. Reacting fast, Maki tackled the other girl to the ground as the mat absorbed the bullet in their stead.

Maki pulled out her combat knife and knelt by the doorway at the ready. The man had no angle on them… he would have to exit the room if he wanted to pursue. When he did…

She immediately swung upward, stabbing the man’s wrist! Causing him to drop his weapon. He kicked in her direction, but she rolled out of the way and lunged at him, tackling him to the ground and pressing her knife at the man’s neck. 

“K-Knock him out, Maki-roll!”, Himiko said in a panic.

Of course, this wasn’t a movie. Under normal circumstances, a person can’t just be ‘knocked out’ that conveniently. With enough blunt force or spinal damage, someone could be forced to lose consciousness, however, that more often than not was the result of serious, life-threatening brain damage that almost negated the point of simply not killing them.

Even an application of chloroform would take several minutes to render someone immobile, and would require continued dosage to keep them that way. Turns out, the human brain  _ really _ doesn’t want to just lose consciousness at the whims of other humans. 

Reality was not as easy as fiction.

And in that moment of hesitation, the soldier kicked Maki in the gut, sending her flying off of him and back onto the safety mat that had fell to the floor. Himiko could see his eyes make a beeline for the dropped firearm, and she mustered her courage and leapt to grab it first. 

The man grabbed her wrists tight and attempted to wrestle the gun away from her, but the stubborn mage held with all her strength. As she was flung back and forth, her iconic hat fell to the ground. Maki saw this and had a flash of inspiration. 

She grabbed the hat, leapt forward and slammed it over the man’s head while his arms were occupied. Forcing the collar-band down, she tightened it over the man’s neck, essentially blinding him. In a panic, he dropped Himiko and began struggling to remove the restraint.

Maki pulled the other girl back as she tripped and fell, not taking her eyes off of the enemy, who was dancing around in a frenzy. She had acted so quickly that she doubted he even realized what had happened. Her thoughts immediately turned what she expected to occur next.

With his breathing blocked, the man would begin to inhale his own carbon dioxide emission. Within moments, he should begin to gradually weaken and lose consciousness. Except… that didn’t seem to be the case.

Not missing a step, the soldier only seemed concerned with removing the strange cloth bag that had been affixed to his head. With a simple motion, he ripped the hat apart and threw the pieces to the ground. Then proceeded to yank off the collar-band.

Maki was perplexed… that wasn’t how an ordinary human should’ve reacted. Unless…

Her gaze instantly focused on the wound she had inflicted earlier… there was no blood on his wrists… just a tear, almost as if his flesh wasn’t actually flesh at all. But some sort of trickery meant to mimic it.

Without giving it any further thought, she reactively grabbed the handgun and took a calculated shot at the man’s forehead. As the bullet grazed him, there was once again, no blood. Patches of skin peeled away to reveal a purely metallic skull underneath.

Maki gritted her teeth, these aren’t ordinary soldiers at all.

In a way, that almost made it harder.

Her talent was in killing targets composed of flesh and blood, not wires and steel frames. Against something like this, what use was her talent after all?

Just as she was about to grab Himiko and make a run for it, she heard a panicked scream from above. Turning her head upward, she saw something that she never would’ve imagined happening in her life.

The Ultimate Detective was barreling down the center of the stairway shaft, clutching a broken piece of guard-rail in his hands as he crash-landed right on top of the soldier, impaling him right in the head and embedding the pole in the floor below with a loud crack.

Having had his fall broken, Shuichi stumbled off of the enemy and awkwardly rolled onto the safety mat beside the others, landing face-up with a look of shock and elation on his pale face. He was breathing heavily and sweating like crazy.

He bent up to look at what he had just done, and saw the mechanical man sparking and whirring uncontrollably, limbs flailing around in a very inhuman fashion.

“W-What is that!?”, he yelped in shock.

“Forget about that thing! What the hell did you just do!?”, Maki shouted back, grabbing the boy by the collar.

“Uhh, well… I just…”, he started, but she wouldn’t let him finish.

She was completely flustered that Shuichi of all people had done something so uncharacteristically reckless and daring. Instinctively, Maki shook him even harder, demanding an explanation.

“S-Shuichi! T-Thanks a lot! I d-didn’t know you had such high-level magic within you!”, Himiko complimented him, the excitement of the situation getting to her.

“I-It was n-nothing… I just h-heard a gunshot and p-panicked is all…”, he reasoned with a nervous chuckle. Even he was having a hard time wrapping his head around his own actions.

Maki let go of him and pushed herself off the ground in a huff, turning away sharply. Shuichi could tell she was fidgeting with her hair but didn’t want them to see.

“If you didn’t scream like a baby on the way down… that almost would’ve been cool”, she admitted with a hard cough.

Shuichi let out a deep sigh of exasperation… even after doing something that scary, he still wasn’t ‘cool’ in Maki’s eyes. Not that he particularly cared either way.

The other two helped eachother to their feet just as something else plopped onto the floor from above. It was a sleek black suit with extra padding, befitting some kind of space engineer. Shuichi bent down to pick it up, having tossed it down ahead of himself.

Himiko meanwhile, was staring at the other pieces of black fabric scattered about. She had a sad look on her face as she took a deep breath. Maki noticed this and looked away awkwardly.

“Right… sorry about that”, she admitted.

“It’s fine… I don’t need it anymore”, Himiko said solemnly, turning away.

Shuichi looked over her for a moment, thinking back to when he too, had to let go of a piece of headwear. She seemed taken aback by the attention though as she stammered, “W-What is it?”.

“Oh, nothing… Just weird seeing you without your hat”, he said.

“...You were thinking that I look even shorter without it, right?”, she muttered in a depressed tone.

“No, no! I wasn’t, honestly”.

Maki meanwhile was examining the remains of their fallen foe with a curious eye. “It’s some kind of… mechanical soldier, probably controlled remotely”, she surmised.

“Nyaa… if only we still had charged Electrohammers, this would be easy…”, Himiko bemoaned.

“Unfortunately, Monokuma took those back before that trial… we don’t have the time to go searching for them. They might not even be charged anyway”, Shuichi said, taking a look over the enemy himself.

Maki stepped back from it as she put a finger to her chin in thought.

“I have an idea if you’re willing to risk it”, she said.

* * *

 

The other two soldiers wandered around the entrance hall, pointing their guns every which way. Always making sure to cover one another’s field of view as they made their way down the hall. 

Step by step, they checked every inch of space that could exist between them and their targets. They were completely silent as they went about their duty, no unnecessary movements or actions as they followed standard procedure. 

Suddenly, they heard something move to the far end of the corridor. Both of them drew guns on that spot, and fired controlled shots at the derelict piano that laid in pieces. Dust flew out as light emerged from freshly created bullet-holes.

A figure rolled out from behind it in a panic, a young man in a strange black suit. The soldiers rushed forward, their target identified. As if expecting their approach, the target leapt to their feet and flung himself right over the railing overlooking the stairs to the basement level.

Following procedure, the men rushed down the stairs and turned into the basement, pointing their guns forward as the target slowly made his way across a pool of water that had built up. The soldiers stopped at the water’s edge and began to line up their shots…

When they were unexpectedly kicked from behind and fell face-first into the water ahead. They spurred and crackled as they attempted to get up, but just as they stood to their feet, dislodged electric cables from above caught onto their bodies and delivered a surge directly into them, frying the circuitry behind the now rapidly burning false-flesh.

In an instant, the mechanical men fell back over into the water, never to rise again. With a look of satisfaction, Maki dropped onto the stairs from above and extended a hand to the young man currently carrying a soaking wet piece of machinery.

“You think that thing will still work?”, she asked.

Holding up the module, Shuichi gave a hard shrug.

“It just needs to hold out long enough for us to leap out of here”, was his uncertain reply.

As they headed up the stairs back to the first floor, part of steps crumbled apart and fell into the water below. Truly, the building was on its last legs. When they reached the top, Himiko popped out of the classroom she had been hiding in and rejoined them. 

“I don’t see the last guy out there”, Maki reported, staring out the window by the stairs.

“Who cares? We just need to make it back to the hangar, right?”, Himiko interjected hopefully.

As Shuichi stripped out of the protective suit, he gave the situation a bit of thought. “I don’t like this… it’s a straight shot between here and the hangar, that gives him the advantage”.

“Why don’t we go around? Take the exit in the Dining Hall”, Himiko suggested.

“It collapsed, remember? The front door is the only way out of here now”, he replied, his voice disappointed. 

The three of them were deep in concentration.

Soon their attention was gradually drawn to the solution right in front of them. If he was expecting them to waltz out through the front door, they could catch him by surprise by…

Maki used the edge of her knife to carefully unscrew the window from the wall, allowing them to tumble over the edge and land outside where they had plenty of debris to use as cover. They kept an eye out for the last soldier, but didn’t stick their necks too far out of line.

Shuichi pointed to the far side and whispered, “Look there, we can cut through the casino area”. There was a split just wide enough for them to pass, and the high walls would provide cover as they crossed over to the other side of the dome.

The trio ducked and weaved between the piles of rubble as they approach the wall, squeezing themselves in-between the crack to enter the casino area, where they slid down the slanted and dislodge wall of the casino building, which had fallen over onto the exterior wall.

Once on solid ground, they looked ahead to the other end of the mote-like area. A collection of tall trees had broken off and fallen into the Kumasutra building across the way. If they could get inside, they might be able to climb the trees to the top of the far wall. 

“Nyaa! This door won’t budge!”, Himiko exclaimed as the group shoved themselves against it. 

Shuichi blushed as he rummaged through his pockets, before pulling out a shimmering white key. The girls eyed him suspiciously as he took the walk of shame and unlocked the front door. 

“Shuichi… why do you have that?”, Maki questioned menacingly.

“D-Don’t look at me like that… Monokuma gave it to me forever ago”, he said defensively.

“And you just happen to carry it on your person?”, was her piercing question.

“J-Just in case we needed to i-investigate!”, he stammered awkwardly.

“Nyaa… there’s only so many things you can investigate in a place like this…”, Himiko muttered, her face turning pink at the thought.

Shuichi sighed heavily, “C-Can we talk about this later?” he asked as he started pulling himself up through the branches of a fallen tree. 

The girls followed suit, with Maki taking a disgruntled look around before they left. “This place is so tacky…”, she commented dismissively.

Bit by bit, the group made their way up the fallen trees. It was surprisingly easier to climb trees when they were at a slanted angle and not positioned straight-up. As they continued onward, Shuichi noticed a sizable hole in the wall just barely above ground level.

He directed them to move through it, and they spilled out onto the grass below. They were hidden in the shade of the massive wall and well out of most lines of sight. But in this relative darkness, something stood out to the group as they scrambled to their feet.

“H-Hey! What is that?”, Himiko asked, pointing to a source of light before them. Slowly, they approached the mysterious glimmering that was piercing through the still-standing trees. It was coming from a shallow crater in the ground.

Peering over the edge cautiously, they witnessed something truly amazing. A small black orb, no bigger than a baseball… engraved with glowing white lines in some kind of complex pattern. It almost seemed to hum and draw them in closer with its sheer mystique.

Shuichi knelt down and picked it up… it felt warm in his hands.

There was only one image to came to their minds.

Hope.

Himiko gasped, “I-Is that…?”.

Maki bit her lip, “It m-must be…”.

Shuichi felt a sense of responsibility welling within him.

“This has to be a piece of him… of Kiibo”, he declared.

“N-Nyaa!? Is K-Kiibo alive after all?”.

“Don’t jump to conclusions… we don’t even know what this thing is”, Maki warned skeptically.

“But it’s a part of him… I can feel it”, Shuichi affirmed, gazing at it intently.

“What are we gonna do with it?”, Himiko inquired.

“We’ll take it with us… if this thing really is Kiibo… then maybe”, Shuichi pondered aloud, holding it up to the light.

“Are you sure? We shouldn’t get our hopes up if it turns out to be nothing…”, Maki argued, crossing her arms.

“We wouldn’t have any hope if not for Kiibo… we owe it to him to find out the truth… even if it isn’t what we want”, Shuichi said clearly and with purpose.

Maki smiled slightly, “I agree… he’s the only reason we’re still here”.

“Y-Yeah! We’ll see this through, just like he wanted!”, Himiko agreed excitedly.

Shuichi took one last look at the strange device as he clutched tight.

Why did he give his life for them? Was it to discover the full truth? Was it to hold the world accountable for their decision to spare their lives? Was it to create a true hope that had long been lost to this world?

Whatever the reason, they would see it through.

They were so preoccupied with their thoughts however, that they failed to notice the enemy approaching. As soon as Shuichi caught the final soldier in the corner of his eye, he shouted “Get down!!”.

In an instant, the crater exploded with great force as the three of them rolled and jumped out of the way of the incoming blast. All attention turned to the man, who wielded a wrist-mounted rocket launcher aimed straight in their direction. 

No words were needed as they instinctively made a break for it. They zig-zagged through the grass and onto the back half of the courtyard, debris flying by as shots barely missed them. Dust was kicked up and soon enveloped the entire area, clouding the soldier’s field of vision.

Running as fast as their legs could take them, they successfully made it to the edge of the hangar bay just as the soldier found himself needing to reload. Not missing the opportunity, the survivors ducked inside and rushed through the winding maze-like corridors on their way to their salvation.

In a haze of desperation, they managed to secure the module to the Exisal and load up the auto-repair sequence. There was a look of fear and exhaustion on their faces as the countdown ticked down for what felt to them like forever. As soon as the terminal gave them the all-clear, Maki leapt into the pilot seat, realizing in that instant the problem.

“There’s… not a lot of space in there”, Shuichi noted.

Gritting her teeth and blushing furiously, Maki shouted, “J-Just lay across me, b-both of you!”. The other two blinked, taking a moment to even comprehend the instruction. In a fit of frustration, she grabbed Shuichi by the wrist and pulled him inside the cockpit.

His head hit her soft thigh as his legs curled up to fit inside the cramped space. Before he could ever consider the implications, Himiko dove onto his chest causing him to cough in discomfort. Making sure they were snugly… very snugly… inside, Maki pressed a button that closed the hatch and started the boot-up sequence. 

Reaching over them, she frantically fiddled with the controls until the Exisal awoke to action and started walking through the hangar bay. With every step, Himiko found herself bouncing in the air. “H-Hold onto her! I need to see where we’re going!”, Maki commanded.

Deciding to not even think anymore, Shuichi wrapped his arms around Himiko and held her down through every bump in the road, so to speak. She seemed taken aback by this forcefulness and her cheeks reddened as a result. 

The entire arrangement was mutually embarrassing for all involved.

As they reached the exit, the soldier ran up and aimed his weapon at the mechanical monster before gradually lowering it and backing away in fear. Perhaps they weren’t briefed on the danger of an Exisal…

Not wanting to take any chances, Maki deliberately stomped the machine man out of existence with a single step. As they headed further into the courtyard, the power warning started flashing incessantly. They only had one shot to make this work.

Crouching down, the three of them braced themselves as the Exisal made one final leap high up into the air. Its bulky frame arcing itself in just the right position to burst through the hole in the dome above, the sharp corners scratching loudly against the exterior of the mech.

As soon as the machine made solid footing on the outside, it began to power down. The lights flickered off and the on-board computer system whirred into silence as Maki flipped open the hatch. Her embarrassment reaching its peak, she practically shoved the other two out of the cockpit and onto the soft ground below.

When they were all out, the Exisal stuttered and broke down… it had run its course. The trio looked on as one of the mechanical terrors that had held them against their will fell apart and slumped into a deadened state. And after that…

Their attention turned to the landscape before them. 

Trees towered above them as they found themselves beside a hill in the middle of a dense forest. The sky was overcast and the fog was palpable as they took a few steps into the outside world. Looking back, they saw that the dome they had called home was hidden underneath a tall hill. 

Curiously, they peered over the edge of the hole, careful not to fall back in. Seeing the Academy from so high up whilst standing on solid ground was… unnerving to say the least. They had no idea they were even underground the entire time.

Although at one point, they thought they were on a spaceship so… par for the course as far as locational surprises go.

This had been their entire little world… and now they stood above it.

Turning back around, they gazed in wonder at how wide the space around them was. Nothing but fog and trees as far as the eyes could see. A sense of mystery abounded as they silently took in a complex mixture of feelings, unique to themselves.

Just as they were relishing in their freedom, however. They heard a distinctive beeping coming from Shuichi’s jacket pocket. In surprise, he pulled out his MonoPad… he had forgotten that he still had it.

The screen glitched out like crazy as the girls crowded beside him, looking with concern at the malfunctioning device. Within a moment however, an image became clear enough to discern.

A boy, sitting at a desk.

They didn’t recognize him.

His mouth formed the words the echoed in their minds.

_ You survived against all expectations…  _

_ I can still hardly believe it… _

_ My name is Akira Tsuchiya… _

_ But before anything else, I have one question for you… _

_ How do you fix a broken world? _

**CHAPTER ONE**

**END**


	3. Soft Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: I straight up forgot to post these here, so here's two "new" chapters. Bit of cross-over news but expect more Wolf's Cry coming soon too if you follow that.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Two**

**Soft Hearts**

_ If you don’t have a good answer… you’re in solid company. _

_ After what you just went through, you must be skeptical of anyone in the outside world. _

_ I can’t blame you for that. _

_ The truth is, you’re absolutely right to be cautious. _

_ Whatever conceptions you have about the state of the world… you can go ahead and throw those all away. _

_ They’re either lies… or just relics of the distant past. _

_ The amount of data I can sent to you like this is limited, so I’ll stick to the basics of what you don’t know. _

_ It’s currently 2112. The memories you’ve been implanted with are based on an earlier point in history, at the beginning of the previous century. Analogous to Danganronpa’s original time-frame. _

_ Japan isn’t what you think it is. The landscape itself was ravaged by an unprecedented series of natural disasters throughout the 2030s. You would barely recognize it if you looked at a map.  _

_ You are currently in the dead center of Ijika, a southern island roughly where Ichikikushikino used to be a long time ago. As you can see, it has largely been overtaken by nature. The population is fewer than 3,000 people, nearly all of which live in a fishing village to the north. _

_ Since the island is mostly uninhabited aside from that and a few select private estates, you can imagine it was an ideal location to host an event like Danganronpa. Nobody would ever stumble upon it and interrupt the… entertainment. _

_ The drones you likely dealt with were stationed nearby in case of emergency. You have some time before any other MonoCo agents arrive, so I’d take advantage of your head start if I were you. You’re going to want to head north towards the village.  _

_ I’ll be waiting there for you.  _

_ You might be asking yourselves whether or not you can trust me. _

_ That’s a valid question. _

_ Ultimately, it’s your decision to make. _

_ But I’d urge you to consider my offer. _

_ It’s only a matter of time before they send multiple units to comb over the island looking for you. There’s nowhere you can hide where they won’t find you. And if they do… they will silence you. _

_ I’ll wait in town for one week… if I don’t hear from you by then… _

_ I’ll assume the worst. _

_ I’m sure there’s a lot more you want to know, but this is all the time I have. Be smart. You’re not done surviving this just yet. I can help you, if you’ll let me. Until then, I wish you the best of luck. _

* * *

 

The message cut out as the screen snapped to black.

“W-Who… was that?”, Himiko stammered nervously.

“Someone from the outside world… that’s the only part that matters. We can’t trust him, it’s too convenient. The moment we escape, we get a message telling us where to go? I don’t buy it.”, Maki pointed out, biting her thumb in contemplation.

“Yeah… it sure seems like a trap”, Himiko agreed.

Shuichi covered his mouth, “It could be…”.

“What’s with the hesitation?”, Maki asked.

“Well… it’s just… what other choice do we have? If things are like he said, then we can’t stay on this island. And… thinking it over logically, there’s no reason for them to try and lure us to a location. They know we’re stuck, so they’ll find us eventually”, he explained.

“And you’re right. Getting that message so soon is strange, but not for the reason you think. Do you really think they expected us to escape the dome in the first place? And have a message prepared in advance for when we did?”, he continued.

“What are you saying?”, Himiko inquired.

“At the moment… I can only assume this message is from someone who genuinely wants to help… or at the very least, someone who isn’t associated with this… MonoCo, was it? That’s just what makes the most sense to me”, Shuichi concluded.

Maki crossed her arms and looked down at the ground.

It was evident that she didn’t want to be convinced that easily.

“I’m not saying I trust this person… but I think it’s reasonable to assume they aren’t part of the organization that did this to us”, Shuichi argued.

“You may be right… but I still don’t like it”, she admitted.

“I don’t like it either, but that’s the situation”, he said.

“So, what are we going to do? Are we going to find this person?”, Himiko asked, scratching her now hatless head.

“...Whatever we decide, we still need to get as far away from this place as possible”, Maki stated as a matter of fact. And to that, all were in agreement. 

Himiko glanced at their surroundings, seeing nothing but forestation for as far as the eye could see. A thick fog coating the land like a blanket, which no clear view of the sky.

“...We’re gonna start walking now, aren’t we?”, she complained.

“Afraid so”, Shuichi told her.

She rubbed her eyes wearily. It didn’t need to be said how tired they all were, given all they had been through. That unsaid, they needed to get as far away from the dome as possible. Himiko glanced back at the derelict Exisal and sighed.

“...Wish we could take it with us”.

Maki shook her head, “We could never sneak around in something like this, it’d just be announcing to everyone where we are”.

Giving it a good lookover, Shuichi nodded in agreement. “That’s true… and besides, I have the feeling that they can probably track these things somehow… Oh!”, he exclaimed in surprise, pulling his MonoPad back out.

“We should probably get rid of these… just to be safe”, he told the others as he casually tossed the device back into the hole, where it fell a great distance before a solemn snapping sound echoed back.

The girls did the same with their own MonoPads. 

“It’s not like we’ll need them anymore”, Himiko said with finality.

With that act of closure, the three of them left their prison behind for good and brazenly began marching through the thick fog of the mysterious forest. The air was chilly and the trees immensely tall, piercing into the grey veil above with seeming infinince. 

The relative silence was as much uneasy as it was a relief. A difficult feeling to articulate, which might be why nobody did. While Maki’s guard was most definitely up, she was also confident in her ability to distinguish any threat that approached in this eerie quiet.

“I think we should try to stay against the wind”, Shuichi said, holding up a wet finger to test it. “It should lead us to the coast… one of them anyway”. It was as reasonable a suggestion as any, his companions figured as they followed his lead.

Keep walking… that was the only goal they had for the time being.

Just make as much distance as possible.

While the terrain rose and fell slightly, the ground they followed remained relatively flat. Every now and again they could see a hill rise out in the distance, but nothing too extreme. This made it easier to press on, despite their exhaustion.

How long had it been? An hour? Two? Three? It was hard to know, seeing as they had thrown away their only clocks. The sun’s movement couldn’t be tracked from behind such strong overcast. The sky gradually grew darker, as their footsteps grew slower and heavier.

Shuichi’s stomach grumbled, though he ignored it. 

Just how isolated were they? There had been nothing but desolate forest as far as the eye could see. It was evening now, they must have covered a considerable distance. Secretly, he feared they would stumble upon the same hole in the ground as if they had been walking in circles all that time… but knew that to be unlikely.

Himiko fell to her knees, sweat dripping from her chin. 

“C-Can we rest now? I k-kept going without asking for as l-long as I could”, she mumbled, trying to catch her breath. 

Maki glanced at the darkened sky with wary eyes. “We need to find some kind of shelter…”, she said, “I could scout ahead if you guys wa--”, she was about to suggest before Shuichi cut her off.

“No… we shouldn’t split up. Especially not when it’s about to get dark…”, he said, his tone full of worry. They had enough problems without adding separation to the list.

“Well then, what do you propos--”, she began.

“Nyaa? Wait! Do you guys hear that?”, Himiko interrupted.

Everyone went silent for a moment.

As a matter of fact, they did hear it.

It was the eversoft sound of crashing waves.

Without hesitation, they sprinted in the direction of this sound, crunching untold quantities of fallen leaves and twigs beneath their feet as they scrambled to the edge of a cliff. There in front of them was the sea… glistening slightly in the night as the waves rocked back and forth gently.

Below them, just before the ocean… appeared to be a small rustic trainyard. Discontinued rails that went nowhere, creaking shacks where workers once dwelled, and aged graffiti lining the outer walls between the slapdash fence. It was a relic, if anything, but it was a sign of civilization.

The first they had ever seen.

Carefully, they climbed down the sandy slope of the cliffside and approached a large gap between the fence of the exterior wall. Beside them was a piece of dried out graffiti that read ‘FUCK THE WAR!’, although none of them could guess what war that was in reference to.

“This place looks deserted”, Maki observed.

“Let’s find somewhere to lay down! I’m gonna collapse any moment…”, Himiko said excitedly, her head feeling light and her knees wobbly.

“If I had to guess… this trainyard was probably abandoned after those ‘natural disasters’ that guy mentioned”, Shuichi surmised with a hand to his jaw. 

“If after this place became separate from the mainland, none of the rails went anywhere… that would make sense”, he concluded, walking between a pair of cabins that hadn’t moved in what looked like decades.

Maki lead them along through the maze of rusted compartments until they came across a building near the far edge of the compound. The sign above the door, which was slightly crooked on account of a nail coming loose, read ‘MAIN OFFICE’.

“D-Do you think there’s food in there?”, Himiko wondered aloud.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up for anything edible…”, Shuichi lamented, rubbing his own empty stomach. 

Maki pulled out her knife and broke the front door open by severing the door from the locking mechanism. The three entered the dusty lobby, which was lit only by the back windows that gave a good view of the dark ocean beyond. 

Himiko was the first to notice.

“...N-Nyaa!”, she exclaimed, running to the nearest lobby couch and collapsing onto it with a thud and exasperated sigh.

There was no need for grace, they were absolutely void of any energy. 

Conveniently, there was a couch for each of them, as well as a number of cushioned chairs and coffee tables that went ignored. They all laid there in silence for a long while, the only sounds being the far-off crashing waves and the steady breathing each of them were doing.

For the first time in as long as they could remember, they could relax.

“These aren’t even good couches… but they feel soooooo nice”, Himiko moaned, patting it down gently like it was a newborn puppy.

Shuichi chuckled lightly as he allowed himself to settle into the stock-standard furniture. He pulled his legs up to remove his shoes, as his feet were begging to breathe after an two full days running around. Was there a smell? Probably. But nobody cared… they had earned it.

“This doesn’t feel real, somehow”, Maki commented, tossing her own shoes aside and slamming down on the cushions.

“Ironically… this is more real than anything we know”, Shuichi reminded her, smiling faintly.

Himiko kicked off her boots without getting up, not caring where they landed. That was the level of energy she had at that moment. About 0.5% of a full charge, as it were.

“I’m gonna sleep for a hundred years…”, she mumbled under her breath.

“Before you do… we should talk about who’s going to keep watch”, Maki warned with an intense gaze.

Shuichi hadn’t considered that.

“It’s too dangerous for all of us to sleep at the same time… they could find us at any moment”, Maki said, her tone cold as ice, “I’ll take the first watch while you two get some sleep… I’ll wake one of you in a few hours”.

“I’ll go next”, Shuichi volunteered, noticing Himiko was already fast asleep. She already had so little energy to start with and had pushed herself this far… he would feel guilty if he didn’t let her sleep.

Maki sat up, one knees raised high as she leaned back in the seat. 

“Will you be alright by yourself?”, he asked.

“Hmph, this isn’t my first stake-out, Shuichi”, she replied stoically.

“Well… actually...”, he began.

“...Do you wanna die? After all this?”, she threatened with an annoyed twitch.

“Ha… You’ll be fine…”, he stated with confidence as his head hit the plump edge of the couch. He worried that his anxiety concerning their immediate survival would keep him awake… but his sheer exhaustion won out. Within brief moments, he found himself drifting off to sleep.

* * *

 

“Sir, look at the last footage the drone transmitted”.

“...What is that?”.

“It can’t be…”.

“So… that’s where he hid it… right under our noses. Very clever…”.

“Sir, what are your orders?”.

“Set recovery of that device to Priority Level 3 and prepare covert ops for deployment. We don’t want to attract unnecessary attention. Nobody outside this room knows that the device has resurfaced… let’s keep it that way”.

“Right away, sir. Issuing a black ticket to GHOST now”.

“Submit no report until progress has been achieved. The council has other matters that demand our immediate attention. I’m sure you understand, given recent events”.

“Yes sir, no problem”.

“I leave this matter in the hands of the GHOST Core, dismissed”.

* * *

 

Shuichi awoke several hours later on his own. He rubbed his eyes and gave a soft yawn, wondering why Maki had not awakened him to change watch shifts. The only source of light was the subtle glow of the mysterious device they had taken with them. It laid on the table, on a drink coaster to keep it from rolling away.

Across from him, Himiko was sound asleep. Her breathing was steady and her face relaxed… he wondered if she was having a good dream. He didn’t recall having one at all, simply blacking out between then and now. In some ways, he thought, it was preferable in this situation.

Just efficient rest, no unneeded distractions from an unfiltered subconscious. He glanced over to the other couch… she was gone. He had a mild bout of panic and worry for a moment before noticing her figure through the window. Getting up, he made his way outside.

There was a small porch built into the front of the office building. Some of the wooden rails had fallen off, while the overhead gutter broke off halfway to dangle over the edge. In front of the window, there was an old musty chair, upon which Maki sat, staring out into the trainyard.

“Oh, there you are. I’m awake now, so I’ll take over”, he said casually.

She didn’t seem to notice him. Her attention was focused intently on the surrounding area. Trying to pique her notice, he lightly tapped her shoulder, which prompted an uncharacteristically jittery jump. She glared at him for a moment as if he was a dangerous stranger, but relaxed when she realized that he was in fact, a very safe friend.

“W-What are you doing out here? Go to sleep, I have this covered”, she stated firmly.

“I could say the same to you… I just did, in fact”, Shuichi argued with an innocent shrug.

“I’m not tired, it’s fine”, she said.

“Hey, we agreed to take turns, right?”.

“I said I’d tell you when I was tired and I’m not…”.

“C’mon Maki… you need rest too”, he pleaded, his voice turning more serious. That was when Shuichi began to notice her tense and shut-off body language. Like a coil wound too tight, ready to violently spring loose. 

“If something happens, you’ll just wake me up anyway… I’m the one who has to protect you guys so I might as well keep watch”, she said with a heavy sigh.

“If something happens, we’ll deal with it together. You can’t do it by yourself, you have to rely on us too…”, he told her before trailing off.

Maki looked down at the ground, arms wrapped around her knees.

“That’s what he used to say…”, she murmured weakly.

Shuichi felt a sharp pain in his own chest… it had only been last night that Kaito had…

“Well he was right… even though it took me awhile to really get it”, he replied, pushing those feelings of dread away.

“What do you think he’d say now, if he were here?”, she asked.

“Hm… He’d probably be out here complaining that he couldn’t see the stars”, he joked, gazing up at the thick dark blanket of clouds overhead.

“Yeah… probably”.

Shuichi felt something from her… an aura he was all too familiar with.

“Maki… are you thinking that you don’t deserve to be here? With us?”, he stated directly, taking a nervous gulp beforehand. It was a scary thing to say… but he had the conviction to say things like that now.

She didn’t answer… but she didn’t have to.

“You know… I used to feel the same way. All the time… every time someone was taken from us… I told myself that it should’ve been me… that everyone would be better off if it had been me. But now I know that just isn’t true…”, he explained.

“That’s different…”, she told him, “You just have a soft heart… you blamed yourself for what you had to do… I couldn’t protect him… and I tried to throw away your lives to make up for it…”.

“...I think you have a softer heart than you realize, Maki. And I’m pretty sure that’s what Kaito saw in you… in both of us. And I think that it’s because of that soft heart that you did what you did… I can’t even imagine the pain you were feeling…”, he continued, his tone gentle.

Maki’s body clenched up.

“But that--”

“Doesn’t make it right, I know… but just because I can’t justify it, it doesn’t mean that I don’t understand. We were all being manipulated… and knowing that has made me rethink of a lot of the things that happened… I guess I’m just trying to say that I forgive you, Maki”, he concluded, relaxing his shoulders after psyching himself up.

“And I’m sure Himiko feels the same way”, he added, noticing the subtle look of content on her face.

Maki stood up, inadvertently letting out a heavy yawn.

Shuichi chuckled, he’d never seen her like that before.

“W-What are you staring like that for? Weirdo…”, she stammered, clearly embarrassed.

“Uh… let’s say we’re even?”, he suggested, worried she might utter her usual threat.

Maki nodded begrudgingly, “Okay… you win, I’ll go to sleep. I don’t know why you try so hard, you’re still getting the awful middle shift…”, she told him with a sly smirk.

“Heh… I’m still getting walked all over, aren’t I? It isn’t fair… but I don’t really mind”, he said with a mildly annoyed sigh.

“It just means your heart is too soft… it’s gross but… I can’t dislike that about you”, she joked, crossing her arms.

“Will I ever get a proper compliment from you?”, he complained out loud, not entirely serious.

Maki gave it some thought.

And then she did something unexpected.

She gave him a firm hug, resting her head against his shoulder for just a moment. Only long enough to say, “...Thanks”, before hastily pulling herself back and pivoting away. There was no way she was going to let him see her face after that.

Shuichi was too stunned to even consider anything like that. He was still at the point of being mildly surprised when she cracked a smile, let alone anything that affectionate. He mentally reminded himself not to get used to it, lest he be disappointed in the future.

“R-Right… goodnight, Maki”, he said as she bolted inside, too embarrassed to say another word.

Well, as long as she felt better… that was what was important.

He took a seat in the chair and gazed out into the night.

Feeling the distinct urge to fall back into sleep, he slumped in the chair and bit his lip. The middle shift was awful and he almost regretted volunteering for it so readily. He could’ve atleast pretended to be hesitant about it… but that wouldn’t have been in his character.

The cool wind blew past his wake, helping him to stay alert.

It was so natural… it was nothing like the artificial breeze of the Gifted Inmates Academy. The genuine ocean scent that drifted across the porch was something he would’ve never experienced in that place. Nor the sound of crashing waves, however soft.

He was really on the outside. They had truly escaped.

Taking in these small pleasures made him all the more assured.

In spite of all they had been through… of all they would likely face…

It was moments like these that made it all worth it.

Shuichi made a promise to himself that this would be the first of many times he’d tell himself that. And he wanted the others to keep having that same feeling. It was the source of his courage… and he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment in himself for finding it at last.

Everything was calm… there was no danger perceptible to him.

And it would remain so for the rest of the night.

* * *

 

The GHOST Core.

It was a secret program operated by the MonoCo group.

To maintain control, problematic elements needed to be disposed of quickly and quietly. That was the job of the GHOST Core. They dealt exclusively with issues more suited to a chisel than the hammer of the PMC division. And the most recent black ticket was no exception.

The request was simple.

Eliminate the escapees.

Acquire lost MonoCo property.

The overseer committee determined that two of their best and youngest agents would be the most preferable option. Not only was the assignment consider only a D-Rank in difficulty, but if necessary, teenagers would likely arose less suspicion in the unlikely event that subterfuge was required.

All the paperwork was in order for when the agents returned from their current assignment. After a short resting period, they would be dispatched to the island of Ijika via airdrop. From there, they are to either discreetly eliminate the targets or engage them directly if deemed appropriate. 

The isolated nature of the environment provided more freedom in approach than the usual marks. The overseer committee had casually joked that the young agents might enjoy that, although their feelings on the matter was not a priority.

Operation No-Survivors would be carried out by agents Seishi Yodogawa and Mikoto Itsuki within 24 hours. The committee was reasonably confident about their success.

**Chapter Two**

**END**


	4. Black Ticket

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Forgot to post this here. Hey! Leave some comments! Let me know I have readers here! I clearly need to be reminded, lol.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Three**

**‘Black Ticket’**

When someone causes trouble for the powers that be, it stands to reason that individual would paint a target across their back. There was a very select group of people tasked with handling such matters. The GHOST Core, was one such collection of silent enforcers.

The best way to erase a problematic element… is to make it difficult to trace back to you. This was what they specialized in. Discreet assassination, above all else. They had been trained since childhood to prioritize efficiency and precision in all things.

And what called them into action… was the Black Ticket.

One fresh death, made to order.

“Mister Koga, the security checks are finished, please come this way”, an assistant reported, standing in a classy but quaint office.

“Of course, just a second”, Koga replied, adjusting his tie in the mirror.

Yoshiharu Koga was a divisive man. He held a loyal following among a small sect of like-minded constituents, but was seen as a nuisance by those above him in power. He had staked his political career over ethical grounds, which was uncommon in his field.

Tonight, he was preparing to give a rally speech at a local community center. One that aimed to bolster support for his upcoming platform, as he would announce his candidacy for provisional governor of Saikyo. 

Saikyo had formed from the rubble of boundary between what was once Tokyo and Saitama. The lowest level of the city was eerily reminiscent of an age long past. Whereas far more modern structures had simply risen over top of the ghostly ruins.

“The turnout is expected to be higher than we previously anticipated, sir. Especially given that we’re holding the event two weeks ahead of schedule on such short notice”, the assistant told him.

“That’s hardly surprising. After what happened yesterday, tensions are rising all over the city. Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen next, and we’re taking the center stage before MonoCo’s damage control can swoop in. Those kids… gave us a chance”, Koga explained.

“Indeed, sir!”, the assistant replied excitedly. 

“We’re going to tell everyone that these barbaric death games are unacceptable, and hopefully bring back sensibility to the people. If those kids can stand up to the entire world, than so can we. This is the chance I’ve been waiting years for…”, Koga said, psyching himself up more than anything.

“This is a big night, sir. Everything is about to change for you!”, the assistant said. 

In an instant, they were proven correct.

A crack in the glass.

Blood on the desk.

A body fallen to the floor.

Koga was dead, and within moments the entire office went up in flames. Taking out several members of his staff in the process. The news outlets would blame the faulty wiring of old-world construction for the sudden fire… the truth would vanish into darkness.

Yet the real cause lay but a mile away upon a distant rooftop.

“Well done, Miki-chan!”, a joyous voice called out.

The blond sniper began disassembling her weapon with an annoyed scowl on her face. She hated when he called her that, and had told him so hundreds of times before. At this point, she didn’t even bother.

“What a wondrous performance! I can even see the flames from here! Your propensity for unrepentant bloodlust is truly admirable!”, the man sang.

“Keep your voice down, idiot”, she told him.

“So cold, just as expected”, he replied.

“You didn’t have to follow me. You could have compromised the mission”, she said.

“And miss out on the view? I should think not”.

She knew for a fact he wasn’t referring to the city.

“Regardless, I was sent to retrieve you. It appears we’re going to be working together again, how fun!”, he informed her with a dramatic flair.

She grit her teeth.

“If that’s what the ticket says”.

“Indeed it does! We have some troublemakers to take care of. I hear they’re the talk of the town tonight. The ones who disrupted everyone’s favorite show, you know the one”, he continued.

“I don’t have time for television. Unlike you, I take my job seriously”, she remarked, standing to her feet.

“That’s too bad. This season was particularly thrilling, but I guess it’s just not the same for you if you aren’t pulling the trigger yourself, hmm?”, he teased with a flourish. 

“Keep your voice down”, she repeated.

“Oh, woe is me! I think I’ve made the lady angry!”, he lamented.

She delivered a solid elbow to his ribs.

“...Do you wanna die?”.

The man named Seishi Yodogawa grinned wildly.

She was going to be in for a surprise on this mission, and he couldn’t wait to see how the drama would unfold. That kind of thing was what he lived for most. If trouble was a stew, he’d be the one stirring the pot as intensely as possible.

Mikoto Itsuki had no idea what they’d taken from her.

But she would soon find out.

Of course, he had his own reasons to be personally invested in this mission. But he’d play those cards close to the chest for the time being. No need to spoil the fun just yet.

As a wicked smile crossed his lips, he gave them a firm licking.

He couldn’t wait to see some blood.

* * *

 

Despite his earlier misgivings, the middle shift didn’t turn out to be as rough as Shuichi had anticipated. It mostly consisted of him laying on the stock-standard sofa, occasionally reminding himself not to fall asleep just yet. Every now and again he would stretch his legs, examining the office building.

His biggest concern at the moment was acquiring food and fresh water, so he was keeping an eye out for anything that would prove useful in those regards. As he had suspected, there was no working plumbing in the derelict train station. But he did spot an old pump well outside.

It took all of his strength to pull the rusty lever, but to his amazement there actually was a steady stream of dirty water coming out. Excitedly, he frantically searched for a bucket with which to store it. He found one not far off in a custodian’s closet. Within the span of a minute, he was pumping away, managing to get a full bucket’s worth of dirty water before the well gave out.

Since he’d gone so far already, he figured he might as well keep going. To make it drinkable, he would need to filter and boil it. Granted, there were probably more considerations for randomly-found well water, but that was all he imagined he could do.

He grabbed a pillow case from the lobby’s decorative pillows and wrapped it over a second bucket, making sure to wipe down the insides of the bucket thoroughly. He then spend some time slowly and carefully pouring the liquid through the filter.

He repeated this process several times until the water was as clear as it was going to be. That was the easy part, now he had to figure out a way to boil it to kill any potential bacteria. The last thing they needed in their situation was a sudden outbreak of dysentery. 

Shuichi shuddered at the thought.

The station actually had a small kitchen, which to his immense relief contained a gas-powered stove. It took a few tries but eventually the pilot light flickered on and grew in size. Ordinarily, he would be more cautious about this sort of thing… but something about being a survivor on the run influenced him to live a little more dangerously.

Who would’ve figured.

He transferred the bucket water to a clean pot, which could be affixed with a lid to limit how much water would be lost to evaporation. All of these chore-like tasks became a groove to him. 

‘ _ It feels good to do something useful like this… takes my mind off of everything else _ ’, he thought to himself.

He nearly had an existential crisis when he stumbled on the uneven wooden floor and nearly dropped the precious liquid as he was taking it off the heat. Securely placing it on the counter-top, he lifted the lid and gazed inside.

It sure was water alright. He wanted to take a drink that instant, but had to remind himself that it would still be boiling hot. As proud as he felt, he was also extremely humbled as he gazed at his own reflection in the water.

It wasn’t all that much… only a pot of water. 

He’d thrown out this much just making instant ramen… or so he’d been led to believe. But now it was practically sacred to him. At the same time, it highlighted a major problem… 

Could they really survive out here? Outside of society?

Akira’s offer flashed in his mind… it wasn’t just the allure of answers.

It represented security.

His stomach growled loudly, as if to punctuate that notion.

After everything they had gone through… having to wake up every day wondering where their next meal would come from was a painful thought. That, more than anything else, was driving him to deeply consider Akira’s proposal.

He would talk it over with the girls… they would understand, he hoped. One way or another, they couldn’t stay on this island, scrounging for scraps.

Opening the closet door, he tossed the buckets back inside. He spotted a half-full sack of rice… unfortunately it was a garish color and had the corpses of maggots strewn about inside. Completely inedible.

He laid back down in the lobby, just staring up at the ceiling.

Eventually his eyes turned to the softly glowing orb on the table.

If he were here, he would’ve volunteered to keep watch all night.

Of course, a robot would have his own needs as well. That might’ve actually made their situation even harder, although Shuichi didn’t want to think too hard about that.

He let out a big yawn… he was getting tired again.

But he kept himself awake as long as he could before gently waking Himiko up. She seemed refreshed as she gave an exaggerated stretch as she awoke. He told her to wake him up a little after sunrise to which she gave a simple nod.

And without too much effort, he dozed off once more...

* * *

 

Shuichi awoke several hours later of his own volition. Sunlight was ever so thinly piercing through the closed blinds of the office lobby. He didn’t have much chance to notice when he awoke in the dark before, but it felt strange to be waking up anywhere but his dorm room.

But he was glad he did. He swore that he was back in that place in his dream… dancing in the palm of Monokuma’s paw. This did give Shuichi pause however, to wonder if his dreams could be influenced by his life before becoming who he was now…

Was the flashback light that powerful? Could it erase even the kinds of subconscious recollections that form the backbone of his dreams? It was an interesting thought, but ultimately one he decided to shrug off. Dreams were bizarre no matter who you were, it wasn’t something he’d ever figure out.

He glanced aside, Maki was still fast asleep. 

Himiko was not in his immediate field of vision.

Standing to his feet, he began peeking around corners, wondering where she could’ve gone. Didn’t blame her for wandering about, he had done the same thing. It was surprisingly difficult to silently sit still in the dark of night, alone with your thoughts.

She was nowhere to be found inside the office building. He decided to check his luck outside, where the sun sat just over the edge of the horizon. Just as he took his first step however, he tumbled over onto the wooden stairs below. Thankfully his head stopped just before hitting the ground.

“Uggh…”, he groaned, looking up to see a panicked Himiko reaching her hand out.

“N-Nyaa! S-Sorry, Shuichi! I was just--”, she began as he took her hand, being pulled to his feet.

“W-What were you doing there on the floor?”, he stammered, feeling pain in his upper back. He had tripped over Himiko as she was on the floor of the deck right in front of the door.

“Aah… um… p-push-ups?”, she admitted nervously.

“O-Oh, really?”, he replied in surprise.

“Y-Yeah… I thought maybe I s-should do that… training stuff too”, she told him.

“Ah… maybe not right in front of doors though…”, he said with a sigh.

“Sorry… I didn’t think you’d just wake up on your own”, she said.

“It’s okay, I’m fine”, he said with a light smile, “What about you, are you okay? I did sort of tumble over you…”.

“Nyaa… I’m fine…”, she answered in a low voice.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked genuinely.

“Ah… it’s nothing, really”.

“Hm. You know, you don’t hide your feelings as well as you used to”, Shuichi told her, taking a seat on the wooden steps. As if instinctively, Himiko did the same.

“When I was alone, I kept thinking how… how Maki is so strong and y-you’re so smart… and just wondering where I fit in. I can’t fight or solve mysteries or anything… even my magic is a lie…”, she admitted.

“Oh… oh…”, Shuichi responded empathetically.

He didn’t expect her to be so straight-forward.

“I wanna be useful to you guys! For… for everything you’ve done for me… I wouldn’t be here without you two and I don’t want… to be a burden. I don’t want anything bad to happen because of me…”, she continued on in a flat depressed tone.

“Himiko… hm…”, Shuichi began, not quite sure what to say.

Until he thought of something.

He formed a fist and gave her a gentle tap on the cheek.

“N-Nyaa?”.

Of course he wasn’t actually going to punch her for real.

“Sorry, a certain someone did that for me when I was feeling down on myself”, he explained.

“Right…”, she murmured.

“Listen, I don’t care about that stuff. About how useful you are, I mean. Your life has more value than just that. I’m not that cruel, and neither is Maki, probably”, he told her sincerely.

“B-But…”.

“We’re in this together, okay? The three of us”, he said with firm resolve, looking her straight in the eyes.

Himiko’s body shook a little, as if inspired.

“R-Right!”, she snapped back.

“I’m worried just the same as you… I might act more confident than before but… nothing about this is easy”.

“...I wish things were easy”, she said.

“Heh, tell me about it”, he chuckled.

That seemed to brighten her mood.

“Do you think we’ll ever have an easy life?”, she asked.

“I sure hope so… maybe we should let that motivate us, huh?”.

“Nyaa… that sounds good”.

The desire to know the full truth tugged hard on Shuichi… but he couldn’t deny how good having an easy life would be. But in the end, which would drive him? He didn’t know.

“So how many push-ups did you do?”, he asked out of curiosity.

“...I won’t tell you”, she said, instinctively reaching to pull down a hat that was no longer there.

“Be honest, you can tell me. When I started, I couldn’t manage that many either. I won’t judge you”, he told her.

“..F-Five…”.

Shuichi looked away, at the crashing waves of the sea.

“D-Don’t react with silence! That j-just makes it worse!”, she complained.

“S-Sorry… you know, we can train together if you want. You just have to ask”, he said.

“Ah… that’s a little embarrassing, but… okay”.

“Great, let’s do ten laps around the trainyard”, he said in complete seriousness.

“N-No!”, she shot back immediately.

“Sorry, just a joke…”, he admitted sheepishly.

“Geez, you really have changed… not in a bad way though”, she replied.

“Heh, I’m relying on you to keep me in check”.

“Nyaa… if you insist”, she said with a faint smile.

Himiko seemed to be in better spirits, and that gave Shuichi another boost of confidence. They were going to deal with whatever came their way, as long as they looked out for one another.

That was the plan, at any rate.

Still, their stomachs growled.

“I d-don’t think we can stay here for long… there’s no food anywhere”, Himiko stated nervously, shaking a little from hunger.

“That’s true… but it’s amazing we even found a safe place to sleep in the first place. If we leave, there’s no guarantee we’ll find somewhere else…”, Shuichi replied, leaning back in anguished contemplation.

“I-I’m starting to think… we should take that guy up on his offer…”, Himiko admitted begrudgingly. 

“...You too, huh? I’ve been thinking the same thing…”.

“It would be nice if we didn’t have to rely on a suspicious person… but I don’t know if we can…”.

“...Yeah”.

There was no way they could sustain healthy lives on their own.

It was a fun fantasy, but it just wasn’t realistic.

Shuichi was gradually coming to terms with that.

“Maki-roll’s not gonna like this…”, Himiko moaned.

“No she won’t… but she’ll understand”, he added.

Suddenly, he rose to his feet and started examining the area around them. Pacing back and forth as he overlooked the trainyard, he began to postulate.

“These old tracks have to lead somewhere… my guess is up towards the town that guy mentioned. Following them should lead us right to it…”.

“Nyaa… more walking”, Himiko complained.

“It’s not like we can call a taxi”, he mused.

“Oh yeah!”, she exclaimed out of the blue, “I did find something earlier!”. Shuichi perked his head around in curiosity. 

She lead him back around the side of the building, where on the ground there lay a rusty old fishing pole. Shuichi cautiously picked it up, off-handedly wondering if the old him had received his tetanus shots.

I mean, he must’ve, right? What kind of idiots wouldn’t vaccinate their children? Probably the same kind that would allow them to participate in globally broadcast death games, now that he thought about it.

This world… was something else.

In any event, he hoisted it and brushed away the dirt and grime that had accumulated. The line mechanism was still intact, and there was a steel hook tied to the end of it.

“Wow, how long has this been here?”, he asked as if anyone would have the answer.

“...Am I supposed to know that?”, Himiko muttered in a snarky tone.

“Ah… no, I just… think out loud sometimes”, he excused earnestly.

“Do you think we can catch anything with it?”, she asked excitedly, doing a little hop.

“Hm… maybe”, he said, bending down to remove his shoes.

“Nyaa!? You’re going to try it?”, she stammered in surprise.

“Why not? We’re hungry, aren’t we?”.

“G-Good point…”.

Rolling up his pant legs, he cautiously began wading into the water, feeling the soft mushing of mud beneath his feet. This sensation should’ve logically been familiar to him, but for equally logical reasons, it felt like a new experience somehow.

As the water rose higher, he kept a close eye on the ground just in case there was a sudden drop off. In a remote coastal area like this, he imagined there would be a sharp drop pretty close to the shore. It would be best to get as close as possible before casting his line.

He didn’t have any memories of fishing, but somehow it was coming instinctively to him. Not that the basic technique was difficult to understand or anything. When the water was just above his knees, he decided to reel back and cast.

It went flying farther than he thought it would. The thick steel hook must’ve been pretty heavy.

Thus began the waiting game. 

Every so often, he would jiggle the line a bit to try and attract any nearby fish. He really wished he had something to use as bait, but if he had, they likely wouldn’t need to resort to fishing to begin with. Although he supposed he could look for worms… but he really didn’t want to.

Worms are, objectively speaking, pretty gross.

Still, the hook should be plenty shiny in the morning light.

He glanced back at Himiko, who had gotten bored of watching and seemed to be hunting shells on the beach. As he was thinking about how many she had collected, he felt a tug on the line. Without hesitation, he began reeling it in.

It put up a valiant fight, but was ultimately dragged up and out of the sea. Its scales shimmered a silvery-green in the light as it wiggled back and forth slightly. It appeared to be a sea bass of some kind, but Shuichi was no expert. It was about seven inches long and seemed healthy.

The only problem now was how to slice it up… he had been hoping Maki would know but also recognized that fish were not people. But if they got to that point, he could cook the pieces on the gas stove. He had always been good at that… or so he assumed.

As he waded back towards the shore, Himiko covered her eyes and looked away. “Nyaa… I don’t wanna know what my meal looks like…”, she mumbled. Shuichi let out a soft chuckle, he couldn’t blame her.

The point was, they would have a meal.

And after that, they would hopefully start moving north.

Towards a danger that they could not foresee…

**CHAPTER THREE** **  
** **END**

  
  
  



	5. Getting Off-Track

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Whoops, I accidentally skipped this one, rearranging now...)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Four**

**Getting Off-Track**

Later that day, the three survivors decided to abandon their temporary lodgings and head north, towards the port town that Akira had informed them of. There was simply no way around it, they couldn’t hide out at the derelict train station any longer. They needed to move onward, to civilization.

It was that decision that lead to them walking along the rusty tracks that cut through the thick forest. The air was cold, and the sky was as whispy and grey as the mist that slowly enveloped the area from the sea. Visibility could’ve been better, but they had tracks to follow so that was not the forefront of their concerns.

Himiko shivered slightly as she pushed herself to keep pace.

“I’d hazard a guess that it’s the middle of fall…”, Shuichi postulated, taking a look at his surroundings.

Most of the trees were large black pines that ascended nearly sixty feet in the air, but he could also see leaves scattered across the ground from smaller trees that stood bare. Of course, the more relevant factor to them was the chilly atmosphere that none of them were quite appropriately dressed for.

“That doesn’t give us a lot of time to find a place to stay…”, Maki warned, alluding to the harshness of winter. That was very true, and was a thought that gave them all pause. It was absolutely critical they have some kind of warm dwelling by the time winter arrived… but whether they’d even make it that far, was still to be seen.

“The Killing Game lasted just over three weeks… I might’ve missed my own birthday”, Shuichi thought to himself, trying to distract the mind from how dire their situation was.

Himiko bit her lip, “That’s assuming what was in the MonoPad was your real birthday…”, she said cynically.

“That’s true… I guess we don’t even know that about ourselves for sure”, he replied.

Maki crossed her arms, half because of the cold, and half because of contemplation.

“Now that I think about it… I’m supposed to be an orphan, right? Why would my birthday be listed…”, she wondered, berating herself for not paying credence to that line of thinking earlier.

“There were holes everywhere in that situation… and yet we couldn’t see them”, Shuichi said, thinking about all the tragedies that might’ve been prevented if he’d realized the truth earlier. But he shook his head… no matter what, he was done with blaming himself for it.

“Hm… the MonoPads didn’t list years either. That’s definitely weird, but for some reason I never really noticed”, Himiko said, kicking a rock ahead to amuse herself.

Perhaps that was all part of the flashback lights’ condition as well.

Why question what you believe to be true?

“I think that’s pretty safe to assume we were all the same age, give or take… except maybe Rantarou”, he said. Rantarou Amami had been in a season prior to them… it’s possible he was atleast a year older, but they had no way of verifying that.

“Nyaa… It feels weird that I’m older than Maki-Roll…”, Himiko said with a sly smile.

“What? No you’re not”, Maki replied bluntly, turning her head around.

“Uh huh, December comes before February, don’t you know that?”, she reminded her proudly.

“No way, it clearly meant the December  _ after _ my birthday”, Maki argued.

“Nah, it was totally the December before your birthday”, insisted Himiko.

Shuichi scratched his cheek nervously, “Um… Without a year, it’s kind of impossible to tell… besides weren’t we just saying how those birthdays are probably fake?”, he intervened.

“Yeah yeah…”, Maki said, “But I’m still older”.

“Hey! I could totally be older than you! You don’t know!”, Himiko snapped feistily. 

“Easy easy…”, Shuichi told them both, raising his hands in a peaceful gesture.

He knew neither of them were taking it that seriously, but he felt the need to calm them.

Just then, they all stopped in their tracks, on the tracks, as they heard a low howl in the distance.

“W-What was that?”, Himiko asked, cowering behind the boy.

“It sounds like…”, Shuichi began, before another call could be heard echoing across the land.

Maki had a serious expression as she reached for her knife… but there was nothing approaching.

A moment of silence passed as the three of them darted their eyes in every possible direction… seeing nothing but the omnipresent mist surrounding them.

Maki regained her composure, “Let’s try to be a little quieter”, she whispered, turning to the others.

They nodded in agreement, and cautiously, the group continued along the path.

Shuichi put a hand to his face as he walked… he knew what he had heard but it wasn’t possible. There hadn’t been wolves in Japan since the Honshu variety went extinct in 1905… but then again, he reasoned, it was now 2112… anything could’ve happened in the history he didn’t know about. 

207 years is a long time… perhaps another species was introduced into the Japanese wilderness at some point. Akira did mention that the land was ravaged by natural disasters long ago… perhaps the geography had changed in ways that allowed different animals to migrate. It was interesting food for though, and kept his mind off the potential threat for awhile.

He heard a sound above and quickly looked up… to see a few birds scatter from the treetops.

Shuichi couldn’t help but be a little jumpy.

But that also got his mind racing… he had once heard a conspiracy theory that all of the birds of the world went extinct in 2001, and had been replaced by surveillance drones by the governments of the world. Of course, he had never paid credence to such ideas but… 

This was a very different world he was entering.

Did he need to be cautious of even the birds too?

He took a deep breath… Relax. Focus. Just keep an eye out and don’t worry about everything that could go wrong. Within a moment, he regained his composure… he wasn’t the same as before. He was more assured, more confident that he could handle whatever the world threw at him. Everything was going to be fine. Shuichi truly believed this.

And that’s where everything went wrong.

It all happened in an instant.

Himiko had casually tripped on one of the bars of the track, which shot her forward… just in time to dodge something that near-silently flew through the air, poised to strike where her head once was. They all noticed it in an instant and turned around instinctively. Himiko’s eyes widened as she looked up at where the bullet grazed a nearby tree… if she hadn’t tripped just then, she would’ve died.

Maki reacted the fastest, tackling the other girl to the ground and rolling off to the side of the tracks, away from the direction of the fired bullet. Shuichi, who was too shocked to think straight, just followed her lead and ducked in that same direction, rolling down a slight incline that bent away from the tracks. Before they could even process what had happened, they were hiding between thick trees, with the tracks on a ledge above them.

There was no way the sniper could hit them from this angle, that was what Shuichi immediately thought.

B-But… what if they weren’t the only one?

His eyes darted around in a panicked frenzy, desperately searching for signs of attackers.

But there was nothing but but an increasingly thick mist and the dark towering trees.

He jerked his head back around to see Maki, who was holding her hand in front of Himiko’s mouth to keep her from screaming. The other girl took a deep breath and nodded, allowing her to release her hand. Maki looked Shuichi in the eyes and nodded her head in the direction of the shore, which was over a hundred meters down a sharp incline before dropping off at a three meter high cliff. 

He wasn’t sure he agreed… the more open the space, the more they could see any attackers but… that also meant less cover for them to work with. He didn’t think it was worth the risk, but he wasn’t sure how to communicate that exactly, so he simply shook his head.

Maki bit her lip, thinking it over again… she knew he was probably right. Thus she turned her head upward, judging the tree she was hiding behind carefully. With that, she began formulating a plan. She withdrew her knife and pointed towards it, then point up at the treetops, then gestured to him, then to her, and made a thumb to point behind her, in the direction they were originally heading.

She planned to take out the enemy from above.

Shuichi’s brow furrowed as he tried envisioning the scenarios in his mind… but couldn’t think of another alternative. So reluctantly, he nodded as he quietly moved between the trees to where the girls were. In a soft, serious tone, Maki reiterated, “You two, keep moving and stay behind the trees. I’ll take care of this…”. Her expression was grim, she was prepared to kill.

Shuichi didn’t like it but…

“Be careful”, he said as if it needed saying.

And without another word, Maki crouched and walked back just far enough to build up speed, before dashing at the base of the tree and running up as far as she could before finding a suitable branch to perch upon. There were two types of trees that populated this forest, ones with many thin branches and ones with larger, thicker branches that the slender girl could stand on.

She would use the latter to hide amongst the former as she made her way across the space above the train tracks, where a bridge of entangled branches crossed. As she went off, the other two looked at eachother with worried glances… but they believed that she would be okay.

“Stay as low as possible”, Shuichi warned as he got on all fours, “But be ready to roll to your feet”.

Himiko followed his lead as they started crawling along the path, stopping at every tree to catch their breath. The cold mist slammed against their sweating faces as they tried to make as little noise as possible… Shuichi was constantly adjusting his breathing at every opportunity. Every few seconds, he turned his head to check that the girl was still following him.

The girl trudged along behind him, trying to ignore all the wet dirt and foliage that was getting all over his arms and vest. She kept her eyes focused on the boy, fearing that she would lose sight of him if she dared look away… but the temptation to look behind her was daunting. Himiko was pushing herself just to move through the paralyzing fear.

Seconds felt like minutes as they mindlessly kept crawling along… the forest ahead seemed neverending. They awaited any confirmation that things would be alright… some kind of a sign. Were they going to crawl all the way to the fishing town? Were there more enemies waiting there? What would happen once night fell? All these questions and more tormented their stressed minds.

But they pushed them all away. In that moment, the only thing that mattered was that they kept moving.

Another shot was fired.

Himiko nearly jumped when she heard it, but Shuichi quickly held her down.

“B-But!”, she exclaimed before he covered her mouth.

He waited a single moment… and then released his hold.

“I didn’t hear a body drop, did you?”, he asked rhetorically.

Himiko shook her head… that was true.

Shuichi put a hand to her shoulder, “Trust her. It’s Maki, after all”, he said with a smile.

She nodded as she lowered herself back down to the forest floor.

The two of them kept moving on… but meanwhile, up above…

Maki was making sure her frame was perfectly concealed behind the trunk as she stabilized her breathing. That shot just barely missed her… but how was it possible that the shooter could see her moving? It was way too close to be a lucky guess… and a trained sniper wouldn’t take a shot for no reason.

There was only one explanation for how they could see her, far up in the thicket of mist and leaves.

Her heat signature. They were using an infrared scope.

She scowled… that was inconvenient. There was no way she would be able to hide her body heat in this damp, cold forest… they all probably stuck out like sore thumbs in the eyes of their assailant. And now that they had noticed her… it was impossible for her to move. Their sights were likely stuck on her now… but on the bright side, that meant they were looking all the way up instead of tracking Shuichi and Himiko.

That part atleast, made her content. But even so…

She recounted all of the survivalist training she had to endure… or so she had been led to believe. But real or not, it didn’t make that information any less valuable. Maki figured she only had a limited amount of time that she could stay in one spot before the sniper relocated to a different angle. So she had to work fast…

The first thing she did was cut off the thickest branch she could find and strip it bare. She then stabbed her knife into it, creating a splint from which she could break it into two flat pieces. Using her blade, she dug out a small indent in each plank.

The next was finding a good straight branch of medium-thickness, which she stripped of its bark and smoothed out with the edge of her knife. In particularly, she made the ends as rounded as she possible could before putting it aside. 

The final thing was grabbing a curved but strong-looking branch, which took her a moment to locate. This would be her bow… now all she needed was an adequate string. As she debarked the curved stick, she pushed her own flowing hair out of the way… before realizing its potential. She sighed… but did not hesitate in the slightest to hold the knife up to the base of her twin tail and cut off a long but thick strand of hair.

Puncturing a hole on both ends of the bow, she fashioned a loose drawstring out of her own hair by tying it through the ends, leaving just enough slack for its purpose. She took the long straight stick and looped it through the hair, making sure it was tight enough to stay in place, but not so much to not spin.

Holding the plank down with her foot, she readied her instruments and began tugging back and forth furiously to create as much friction… as much heat, as possible. Once the bark had been stripped away, the wood underneath was quite dry, so it began to heat up very quickly. Soon, smoke was billowing out from under the intensity of her effort.

Hot smoke that filled the surrounding area and would mask her presence. 

More… more… more… she thought to herself as she pulled the bow back and forth, making the stick spin even more rapidly… she was starting to notice the makeshift string was smoking as well… she had to make it before it disintegrated… she had to--

Ignite a fire.

It was small, but it was there, wavering in the black pit of charred wood. She leaned in closely and blew as hard and steadily as she could. And in just a few moments, the flame grew to engulf the end of the stick as well as the panel below. Without hesitation, she grabbed the both and waved them through the leaves above. It took a bit for the moist foliage to catch fire, but as soon as it began, it kept growing on its own.

This created even more smoke, which billowed through the treetops as she began to move across the branches, eyes peeled for her target. She held her trusty knife in one hand, and raised the burning stick with the other, passing it along every branch on her way. She wiped her sweaty brow… it was getting very hot… there was no way they’d be able to find her now.

Her eyes were trained on the ground, and before long she noticed someone running swiftly along the ground, their body language seemed nervous, but Maki couldn’t quite make out their appearance from so high up and through the blustering smoke. But it didn’t matter, in that moment, they were nothing more than a landing pad to her as she kicked off the trunk of a tree and dove straight down at her target.

As she fell, knife in hand, she started getting a better look at their attacker, who reacted sharply to the incoming threat, holding up their rifle to block the strike. For a brief instant, Maki landed on top of the side of the rifle, and managed to get a good look at the face of the sniper, who studied her in return.

Their eyes widened, seemingly recognizing one another.

It was a girl, her age and no more. With short blond hair and brown eyes.

Maki leapt off of the gun and flipped through the air, landing on the ground several meters away.

The two girls stared eachother down in complete amazement.

Before they shouted simultaneously.

“You’re... not supposed to exist!”.

“You’re... supposed to be dead!”.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, down below…

Shuichi found himself in a precarious situation.

He had snuck up behind them… they never even heard him coming.

And yet there he was, clenching Himiko by her hair and casually tossing a knife in his hand.

He was a tall, slender man with surprisingly flashy clothing for an assassin.

His dull crimson hair flowing in the breeze as he gave off a cocky smile.

“So this is it, huh? The big hero who ruined Danganronpa”, he said mockingly, snickering to himself.

Shuichi stood still, not daring to move, eyes only focused on Himiko.

“See, my partner takes everything so seriously. Doesn’t even like knowing who her target is, but me? Nah… I’m different, you see… I like to play with my food, so to speak”, the man said as flippantly as if as he was talking to a coworker. His casual aura clashed heavily with the gravity of the situation to the point where it unnerved Shuichi, sending a chill down his spine.

The detective clenched his teeth in frustration.

“What’s the matter? No comeback? You’re not gonna debate your way out of this one too? As fun as that all was, you should know that kind of thing doesn’t mean shit in the real world”, the assassin replied, tugging the girl closer.

Himiko had a pained expression, refusing to open her eyes out of fear for what she’d see.

“Aw, how cute. Squirm some more for me, would ya?”, he said as he pressed the flat edge of the knife against her cheek, causing her to recoil. The man’s twisted smile indicated that he was enjoying the act far more than any normal person would.

“Leave her alone!”, Shuichi shouted, brows furrowed and fists tightened.

“Oh, so now you can talk, huh? I guess that is your speciality, after all”, the man said with another laugh to himself, “Tell you what, I’m a nice guy. I mean, really, too nice for my good, really. So much so that it gets me in trouble from time to time, so here’s what I’m gonna do…”, he said, kicking Himiko harshly in the ankle and throwing her on the ground like she was a broken toy.

She cried out in pain as she held her ankle, staring worryingly in Shuichi’s direction. 

The man expertly threw his knife to the side, pinning it in a nearby tree.

He leaned in uncomfortably close to Shuichi’s face and said, “Why don’t you and I fight?”.

“H-Huh?”.

“You heard me, one on one… you did all that ‘training’, right? What, that space loser never teach you how to throw a punch? I mean, what was even the point then, huh?”, the man taunted, cracking his knuckles.

Shuichi bowed his head as he stowed away his anger. He couldn’t win… he knew that, but refused to acknowledge it. Thinking himself clever, he tried to sneakily gut punch the man before him… who saw it coming a mile away and simply side-stepped it before delivering a solid punch to the boy’s face, knocking him back.

Shuichi held his bloodied cheek as he stared down the other man, his eyes glancing toward the knife.

“Ah, of course! The knife! If only you had that knife… you could… what? Kill me? Could you do it, even if I laid down and let you? Ha… I don’t think so”, the assassin taunted, slowly approaching him with raised fists.

He threw a feint, anticipated how Shuichi would dodge, and send a hook in that direction, knocking the boy off his feet and into the air, where the assassin spun around and delivered a powerful kick to his torso, sending him flying back into the nearby tree.

The impact made Shuichi lose all of his breath as he spat out a cup’s worth of blood and slid to the ground.

The man clenched and lowered his fist in a celebratory manner as he walked closer. 

“You know, I don’t get why none of those other idiots tried killing you. I mean, you were the reason they all got caught, right? Well, ‘caught’ is being a little coy… they were executed, plain and simple. They really should’ve gone after you, I mean, it would’ve been sooooo easy… as I’m proving right now”, he rambled off, more to amuse himself than anything.

Shuichi grit his teeth… those ‘idiots’ were his friends… how dare this man speak of them like that.

“You’re a smart guy, right? You knew this was coming, yeah? I don’t even know why you bothered leaving the set, this was as far as you were ever gonna get before guys like me showed up. You knew that, right? But you had to make it harder for us anyway, right? Hate to break it ya, well actually, I’m loving breaking this to you, but… all you’ve done is give me a pleasant afternoon…”, the man ranted, chuckling madly.

Amidst his laughter, he felt a jolt of pain in the back of his skull as a dense rock hit the ground behind him.

Gently feeling the back of his neck for the dripping blood, he cranked his head back to see an angry girl, struggling to stay on her feet. Her face was absolutely terrified… like she hadn’t even realized what she had done until she had already done it. 

A sharp frown formed on the man’s face. Play-time was over.

He marched towards her menacingly, plucking his knife from the tree.

“You stupid side-characters should really learn to stay in your LANE!”, he said as he delivered a forceful kick to her face, knocking her to the ground. 

Shuichi rushed forward, not sure what energy was driving him as he pressed onward.

He couldn’t stand it… he wasn’t going to let his friends get hurt anymore… he wasn’t going to lose anyone else… no matter what it took, he was going to--

Get elbowed in the face and drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The assassin stomped on his throat and held him down as he struggled to get up.

“It’s over, kid. This is where your story ends”, he said, preparing to crush his windpipe.

But for some reason, Shuichi was smiling.

This threw off the man’s composure just long enough for him to be struck with another rock from above.

One that Shuichi had carefully thrown up in the air as he ran… if he been even a little off with his aim, this never would’ve worked. But it did, and that was their chance. The man clenched his head, dropping the knife on the ground, where Shuichi immediately snatched it and drove it into the man’s ankle, getting fresh blood all over his spotless white pants.

“Ooooh that is it! You are so de--”, the man shouted, just as Himiko dove in and tackled him from behind, with all the force she could muster, pulling him the ground. Shuichi didn’t hesitate to follow up as the man knocked the girl away, and quickly stomped on both his arms to pin him to the ground, holding the knife over him shakily.

He was ready to do it… he had the man pinned down… he had the knife in his hand… it would be so easy to finish the job… but he couldn’t. Shuichi froze with fear as he looked into the man’s eyes… cruel and wicked though they be, they were still the eyes of a living person… could he really do it? Could he really become a killer? He had to, right? There was no choice? If it didn’t do this, he would be killed… his friends would be killed… no matter what, he had to… he had to… he had to…

But it took him far too long to process those thoughts.

Long enough for the man to power through and fling Shuichi off of him.

With no more patience for nonsense, the man twisted his hand until he dropped the knife and used the other to hold his throat and hoist him off the ground. All the while, laughing to himself… the laughter echoed throughout Shuichi’s mind… reflecting his own weakness.

“Pfffftahaha! What the hell was that!? You finally had it! Your one chance and you blew it! Ahahaha, how much of a pussy are you?”, the man declared mockingly as blood flowed down his face.

Shuichi refused to look him in the eyes… but couldn’t help but feel intense shame.

He had him… if only he had been more decisive… it was made clear that half-heartedness would not let him survive in this world… but he recognized that fact far too late. Now… it really would be over.

‘ _ Everyone _ ’, he thought to himself, ‘ _...I’m sorry _ ’.

But just then, the man suddenly dropped the ground, letting him go.

Shuichi only saw for a moment what had done it.

Just behind the man was a floating machine… some kind of metallic grey drone.

Had just tasered the assassin from behind.

Before he could even mentally process this new information, the drone shifted forward and tased him as well, causing him to fall the ground as the electricity pulsed through every muscle in his body, rendering him immobile. As he fell, he noticed another drone hovering over Himiko, who laid several meters away.

He tried to reach out to her, but it was no use. His own body was failing him.

The drone hovered lower and pressed something sharp against his arm… injecting him with.... something…

 As his consciousness faded away, he heard the drone speak…

“TRESPASSERS NEUTRALIZED, INITIATING CAPTURE PROCEDURE”.

The last thing he felt was a tight grip around his ankle that started to pull him forward…

Toward what… he couldn’t even guess…

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**END**


	6. Inhumans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Again, forgot to post here. If ya'll are reading this here on Ao3, lemme know! I post mainly for the DR Amino so I tend to forget if nobody comments here to remind me.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Five**

**Inhumans**

In the depths of his unconscious mind, Shuichi struggled to grab hold of something… not a dream, barely a memory… perhaps only the faintest possible idea. Whatever it was… it only made an indescribable melancholy wash over him. But despite this, he felt in his heart that it was truth, whatever that now meant.

But that was a Shuichi that only existed between awareness and sleep, so none of those feelings surfaced as the next thing he knew, he was thrown onto a cold steel floor. Slowly regaining control over his muscles, he realized how little control of his body he actually had.

Wrists and ankles, both bound with tight cufflinks. 

What was once symbolic had become fact.

He panicked as he struggled to break free, but obviously could not.

Cranking his neck upward, he gazed at a depressing sight. It appeared to be some kind of wide chamber, made out of dark and grimy steel that reflected no light. Towards the back wall was a conveyor belt carrying piles of what looked like scrap and junk. Sounds of machines echoed in as if from nearby locations.

A metallic drone passed in front of his vision… he remembered it… that was what he drugged him. It hovered off the ground effortlessly, scanning everything around it with beady cameras unfit to be referred to as eyes. They were far too uncaring and devoid of empathy to be called that.

Feeling a chill run down his spine, he turned to his side, which was difficult to do in his weakened state. There were his companions… as well as his assailant… and another girl he had never seen before. Could that be the sniper from before? It was logical to think so… but never before had it hurt so much to think.

Slowly, they were all gaining awareness as well. Shuichi could see them fidget and shake gradually… but none of them were yet able to speak. Just as this was happening, loud piercing thuds reverberated through the floor as all of the restrained looked up at the most bizarre thing any of them had likely ever witnessed.

It was a man. Or more accurately, some kind of creature in the vague image of a man. He was massive, like a king sized bed come to life and covered in human skin. Grotesque, flabby and oily skin that seemingly had no end. Whoever this being was, he resembled puddle more than person.

He had no legs, but instead sat snugly into a robotic contraption. Like a great bowl with eight mechanical legs not unlike a spider. How even such a marvellous device could hold up that mountain of flesh was beyond mortal understanding. One thing was certain however, if he so chose, he could pierce any of their skulls with ease.

From their lower vantage point, sprawled across the floor, gazing up at this man felt like looking upon a higher being, like the world’s ugliest and cruelest god. As they would come to discover, this impression was far from inaccurate. Shuichi could only just barely make out the man’s bulbous lips curling into a wicked smile from above a gut the size of truck.

“Oooh, what is this? What are these?”, a raspy shrill voice commented, as the man’s massive flabby arms swirled inward to rhymetically tap his pudgy fingers upon his bare abdomen.

“TRESPASSERS, SIR. APPREHENDED AT APPROXIMATELY--”, the drone attempted to answer, before the man leaned in closer. Shuichi was terrified that he would come loose from the chair and crush them all, but thankfully it held firm.

“Are these? Ooooh, lucky lucky lucky! Mhmm… to think, such excellent commodities waltzing right on my doorstep? I bet they don’t even realize how valuable they really are…”, he told himself as his false legs carried him back and forth, examining the line. 

“No documentation! No records! No pesky families! And all of their human rights already signed away! Mhmm…. What splendid new toys”, he cheered as his walker lowered him down the floor for an even closer look. Shuichi took note of his curled dirty blond hair and freckled cheeks… and the disturbing look in his eyes.

The man signalled the drone, and in response it flew over and grabbed Maki’s wrists, hoisting her up into the air. Still barely able to move, she could only glare at her captor with contention.

“Mhmm… splendid indeed…”, he remarked to himself as he pushed his greasy palms onto Maki’s bare thighs, relishing a primal urge. As he began to slide his hands around her contours, she used all of the strength she had to fling a desperate kick towards the man, who pulled back just in time to avoid it.

“Feisty… determined… oh yes… there’s the Ultimate Assassin I remember mhmm… needs to be broken first. Take them all to their cells! Put the lot of them to work!”, he commanded with a hearty chuckle, as he crawled away on his spider-walker. 

“N-No…!”, Shuichi managed to gape out.

Catching his interest, the massive man turned around and pulled Shuichi up by his hair. 

“Aw, wazza matter? Did you think you could go back to a normal life? Mhm… There’s no such thing for you anymore, you little brat! You gave up your rights when you signed up for Danganronpa, not that you remember. They could do whatever they wanted with you, that’s how the whole show worked… taking it off the air doesn’t help you though”, he explained haughtily.

The man yanked Shuichi’s head back and forth as if he was but a toy.

“Whoever you were no longer exists! You’re dead as far as the paperwork is concerned, and without that, you’re little more than stray animals… but that’s fine with me, mhmm… even filthy strays have their uses. You’ll see… mhmm”, he continued with a sadistic smirk as he dropped Shuichi’s head back on the floor with a hard thud.

More drones came in and started carrying them all away… as he was pulled away from his friends, he tried to let out a scream… but there was nothing. He had exhausted his energy, his body going limp as the drone pulled him back. This couldn’t be happening, this could only be a horrible dream….

But it wasn’t. They had escaped one nightmare only to find themselves in an even worse one… it brought to mind a cruel twist on what was supposed to be an uplifting expression.

...Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

* * *

 

“Huh? Oh… shit, it’s a kid…”, a weathered voice muttered, tonally filled with resignation. 

Gradually, Shuichi managed to pull himself from slumber. He felt around as a base instinct, a cheap, itchy blanket atop prickled his fingers atop a firm and thin mattress. It was a small frame, the kind you might grow out of in middle school. As his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit space, he took note of his grim surroundings.

It was dark, with only the glow of red neon strips in the ceiling casting harsh shadows upon the grimy steel box one could begrudgingly refer to as a room. There were two beds, both equally lackluster, on each of the back corners. Straight ahead were thick iron bars that sealed off any hope of exit.

This was a prison cell, and unlike his dorm room at the Gifted Inmate’s Academy… it made no effort to hide that fact.

“You’re lucky”, the tired voice commented, “Far worse cellmates in this joint, that’s for sure… position ain’t bad neither if I don’t say so myself, we’re at the back end of the block, up against a wall. It’s nice and cool, and guards sometimes overlook us… that’s about where the benefits end, I’m afraid…”.

Shuichi took another look around. The person talking to him was sitting cross-legged on the other bed, back against the wall. It was an old man, with ragged white hair and a rough goatee. He wore a withered uniform… a black jumpsuit with a logo where a breast pocket might be.

The white logo read, ‘Mabue Manufacturing Ltd”.

Looking down, Shuichi realized that he was wearing the same exact outfit, only a bit cleaner and pressed.

“Yep, that was Kakei’s afore yous… didn’t make it. Poor bastard…”, the old man remarked with bitterness. But Shuichi didn’t care all that much about what this old man had to say… his head was swimming in frustration.

He clenched his fists. Why did this have to happen? Right when they escape one prison, they find themselves thrown into another… wasn’t he supposed to have changed? Why did he hesitate back then? If it wasn’t for that…

The old man simply chuckled and brushed it off.

“I get it, don’t feel much like talkin’... I understand. Seen it afore. Takes a while to sink in… I’ve had a lot longer than most…”, he said to himself, his demeanor lightening somehow.

Shuichi looked up through tired bangs.

“...How long?”.

The old man scratched his head, turning to look at the new boy with a serious expression. Before giving a very weary and forced smile.

“...I’ve been here sixty years”, was what he said.

Shuichi’s pupils shrank, the inherent despair of those words sinking in.

And so he cursed himself even more.

They were supposed to be free…. And now…

He grit his teeth, eyes watering. 

It was so stupid… all of it.

The old man stroked his chin, nodding to himself.

“Well, whatever you did to get tossed in here, I ain’t gonna ask. None of my business, but ifin you wanna talk, well… there ain’t much else to do. If not, I recommend you get as much rest as ya can. Once the work starts, ye ain’t getting much in the way of a break til it’s done”, was his solemn advice.

Shuichi’s furrowed brow heightened.

“Work?”.

“Tch, o’course! What, you think theys let us mope around all day? If only… they work us like dogs ‘n here, boy. And feed us half as much, I reckon. Trust me, you’ll be want’n as much shuteye as you can get”, he explained, almost amused by the concept of not working.

Shuichi hunched over on his bed… as if he could go back to sleep now.

He was far too compromised.

The more he inspected his environment, the more helpless and afraid he felt… more than anything he had experienced thus far, this felt like a true dead end. His guilt kept bouncing off the walls of his mind, blocking out all rational thought.

He needed to do something… but there was nothing to be done.

He couldn’t accept this situation… but he had no choice.

He was stuck. Emotionally, physically, mentally… 

Perhaps it was his detective’s curiosity, perhaps it was a desperate cry for understanding, but he quivered as he asked, “...W-What’s your name?”.

The old man perked up.

“Gan. Folks just call me Ol’ Gan though, not that there’s any others”, he answered.

Sixty years… in this place. Shuichi couldn’t even imagine.

He barely looked a day over seventy, so that was… 

Extremely sad. He wanted to know how that even happened but… was too conscientious to inquire.

But despite this unfortunate circumstance, he couldn’t help but feel a small degree of kinship. This man, much like himself… had practically been born a prisoner. It was an odd feeling… to take comfort in someone else’s misfortune but… that was how Shuichi felt in that moment.

But it wasn’t long until the anger took over once again. And Shuichi found himself lying in his stiff bunk… stewing in regret. 

Those were the last words they shared that night… 

* * *

 

Himiko sat against the wall, knees curled up, rocking back and forth.

Trying so very hard not to cry. 

Before her, Maki was pacing around, biting her thumb in annoyance.

There was no way out, there was obviously no way out… but she kept looking. Over and over again, she kept looking. But as she kept expecting, there was nothing. Fortified steel, in every direction. And just beyond the iron bars, patrolling drones that scanned the hall vigorously.

Eventually she gave up and threw herself onto the shitty bed.

But that was Himiko started sobbing.

Annoyed, Maki turned around with a disgruntled face, “Would you sh-- Sorry…”, she said, correcting herself. There was no need to take out her anger on Himiko… that wasn’t her, it was just… everything.

“S-Sorry… I just… I just…”, Himiko mumbled, wiping away her tears.

Maki let herself collapse on the bed, defeated.

“I know…”, she affirmed.

“W-Where did they t-take Shuichi? W-What’s gonna happen to us…?”, Himiko asked, her voice shaky.

The answer to both questions was the same.

Maki sighed, “...I don’t know”.

They were naive, she thought to herself. Of course this would happen.

They were stupid to think it wouldn’t.

Tsumugi had warned them afterall…

‘ _ Even if you were to leave, you would find the outside world… most unwelcoming _ ’

There was no place for them anywhere… 

Maki bit her lip, she could almost imagine Tsumugi mocking them from hell, which she would’ve been sure she went to, if she believed in such a thing. She turned over, staring down a grungy wall. 

“I know it’s hard but you should try to get some rest…”, she advised, “Things are only going to get worse…”.

Himiko nodded, her entire body shivering in dread. 

Reluctantly, she crawled into the uncomfortable bed.

Hiding under the covers… away from the world.

She cried… she cried a lot. From frustration, from fear… from everything.

So much anxiety was building up inside her… with no outlet.

And so the two girls laid still… trying desperately to calm down enough to sleep… and having a very rough go of it.

* * *

 

“They can’t do this to me! Hey! You hear me!? You can’t do this to me!”, Seishi bellowed, as he clung to the bars of his cell. There was no response… there hadn’t been any response for some time. Well, other than the expected…

“Shut the fuck up!”

“We’re trying to sleep, asshole!”

“Shove it, brat!”

“Someone knock this fucker out!”

Seishi gritted his teeth as he pulled harder on the bars.

“Oh, you can all eat shit! You’re all worthless trash! I’m important! I’m a GHOST Agent! I’m a profession hitman! I could murder any one of you impudent fucks in your sleep! I don’t belong here! Guards! Guards! I demand to speak with the fat fuck that locked me in here! If he comes quick, I promise I won’t gouge out his fucking eyes!”, Seishi screamed, kicking and banging on the walls.

Soon enough, a drone came hovering in front of his cell.

“Fucking finally!”, he declared, “Listen up, I’m giving you to the count of three to-- GRRRAHAHAHA”. His demands were cut short by the drone unceremoniously tasing him on the spot, forcing him down to the cold, hard floor.

The message was clear. There would be no negotiations.

“AAAAAA I GET IT! I GET IT! I’LL BE Q-QUIET JUUUUST STOOOOP!!”, he shouted in a panic as the drone disengaged. As it flew away, Seishi regained muscular control and slumped over to his bed, punching the wall in a fit of rage.

“It’s okay, it’s okay…”, he told himself, “They’ll come looking for you eventually… they can’t afford to lose a star agent to this dump… just wait it out… wait it out… they’ll find you in a few days, and then you can have this whole place smashed to pieces…”.

This seemed to reassure him enough to relax, although frustration still radiated from his bodily aura. Within a few moments, he found himself sound asleep, eagerly awaiting the rescue he was certain would come.

* * *

 

Mikoto Itsuki found herself in a cell, all alone with only her thoughts for company. While she was upset that she let her guard down enough to be captured… there was something else bothering her even more.

The girl from her past… had suddenly returned.

And seemed convinced she was the real assassin.

Even her movements… seemed indistinguishable from her own.

It had been like looking into a mirror.

She shook her head. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was her objective.

If that girl was the target, so be it.

Mikoto had completely accepted her role as a weapon to be used.

There was no purpose in getting distracted, even in this situation.

Being held here would not avail her. If the opportunity arose, she would complete her mission, no matter what. That being said… the curiosity did eat away at her… and she might have some strong questions for the GHOST Core afterward. That was her one concession, a single compromise to ensure the mission’s success.

With this singular focus, she had little trouble in resting.

* * *

 

Mabue Manufacturing. 

An industrial prison complex located in the heart of Ijika Island.

Remote enough to be in the gray area of several different legal jurisdictions. A privately owned corporation that almost exclusively utilized prison labor to reduce costs and increase profits. Even so  much as trespassing on the property was grounds for incarceration.

It was the kind of place only the extremely unfortunate arrive at.

Victims of gambling debt, criminals few countries would officially accept, people who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and needed to disappear. Those were the types that ended up slaving away inside the impenetrable walls of Mabue Manufacturing.

The condemned have no rights here. 

And in the eighty-two year history of the establishment… there was only one way anyone ever left that place. It was dumping ground for human lives, to waste away for the benefit of the absurdly wealthy.

Enter, Futoshi Mabue, the only son of the late founder Hiroshi Mabue.

Weighing in at 999lbs (currently), his excessive girth is matched only by his relentless cruelty. The very definition of gluttony and corruption, spoiled rotten by his father and raised to be just as manipulative and petty. Every single day, he runs his father’s business like his personal playground.

Futoshi had always gotten exactly what he wanted.

Food, toys, women… anything he set his beady eyes upon.

Once, when he was a mere 520lb 15-year old boy, he demanded sexual favors from the daughters of his father’s corporate staff. When they obviously declined, his father retaliated by cutting their salaries by 95% until they complied. Within a week, anyone who couldn’t find other work… submitted.

When one employee attempted to sue the institution for this malpractice, he found himself crushed by the weight of Mabue estate’s pristine legal team, who arranged several unflattering scandals surrounding the man, ensuring the case would never make it to a real court.

The man found himself slaving away in the prison complex… and nobody dared stand up to the company like that again. 

But even before that, Futoshi’s heart was already rotten. At the tender age of 7, weighing in at a paltry 303lbs, he once stabbed his mother in the face with a steak fork. When asked why he did this, he simply replied that he was bored and wanted to see her scream.

He was not grateful, nor kind to his mother. On many occasions, he would deliberately make as big a mess as possible in order to sit back with a smug grin as he watched her clean it up. At that young age, it was one of his favorite forms of entertainment. 

There was one such incident, where upon stumbling upon his mother, collapsed from exhaustion on the floor, he decided it would be more fun to wake her up by urinating on her face. When she awoke in a state of alarm to protest, he spat at her and slapped her with his greasy stub of a hand.

It was at that point, she had more than any person could reasonably be expected to take. She lunged at her son, this ugly spawn of that man she regretted marrying more than anything, and tried to choke him… only to find his neck too large and fatty for her slender hands.

Still… this awakened a sense of vindictiveness in the child, who has not accustomed to backlash for his actions. He screamed, and threw whatever he could at her. It was, in the eyes of any potential witness, the tantrum to end all tantrums. 

After this, the woman was never heard from again… and the following week, he would have a new mother, subservient to his every whim. This was the fate of anyone who crossed Futoshi Mabue, his father made sure of that.

Even now, twenty-three years later, as his prisoners prepared for yet another day of intensive labor in the never-ending despair that was their lives… the spoiled child, now grown, was high above them in his private chambers, living out the most depraved fantasy anyone could dream of.

Delicious, delicately crafted cakes were torn apart with his bare hands like they were little more than sandcastles. He greedily shoveled the sugary confections into his gullet, spreading cream all over his bare frame. Intermittently, he would wash it down with expensive champagne that poured in from a spout above with the pull of a string.

As he did this, he was surrounded by unwitting women far more attractive than he. They cooed and coddled him, telling him how special he was, he great he was, how everyone else should be thankful for his existence. How he was smarter and more powerful than other men. He grabbed at them like they were no different from the cake.

Mabue Manufacturing… you could find no greater microcosm of prosperity division anywhere on Earth. This was less a business, barely even a prison, but more of a depraved palace where there was but one God who reigned over an army of starving slaves.

As another 16-hour work shift began, he turned his attention to the collection of monitors in the corner, licking the fudge from his lips as he fondled another woman’s rear. 

‘ _ Mhmm… work harder, you unworthy peasants. This isn’t enough, not nearly enough… I need more! More! Make more products…. Make me more money… mhmmmmm... serve me dutifully until you fall apart like all my other toys… _ ’, was barely an exaggeration of the thoughts that ran through his mind.

Like a pig with the face of a man, he rolled about in a massive pile of debauchery and filth. Maybe there was more influential evil in the world… maybe there were dictators crueler, executives more abusive… but in terms of the sheer disgusting greed of mankind… you could find no better example.

There was no class, no subterfuge, only sheer unbridled consumption.

This complex was Futoshi Mabue’s world… and he intended to keep it that way. 

And this… was the hell on Earth that the survivors had fallen into.

Welcome… to the first day of the rest of your lives.

**CHAPTER FIVE** **  
** **END**


	7. Human Machines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Late post from Amino.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Six**

**Human Machines**

“Mhmm… glorious, isn’t it? So shiny… something to do with that goody two-shoes robot, I imagine. In any case, it’s a fitting piece for my collection”, Futoshi remarked to himself as he gazed at the shimmering orb, delicately placing it on a small decorative cushion.

A uniformed guard took the cushion from his grubby hands and securely locked it inside of a glass case, which stood atop a pedestal in a room with no scarcity of them. Every which way there were relics from a bygone age and treasures that held considerable value.

It wasn’t the largest collection, but it mostly existed because of the man’s obsession with the shiny and beautiful. Ornate jewelry, priceless paintings, and objects of unique historical significance. It was doubtful one as crass as Futoshi Mabue could appreciate these things for their true value, only seeing them as an extension of his wealth, which was naturally, an extension of his greatness.

This room was not a monument to the items held within it. It was a monument dedicated to a man vain enough to believe merely possessing said items was an achievement that showcased his worth above other lesser people. 

For Futoshi Mabue, it might as well be a hall of mirrors.

It should be no surprise then, that Futoshi Mabue did not realize the true significance of that device. But at that time… there were few who could.

* * *

 

It was at that time that Shuichi realized the orb was missing, as he gradually awoke in the stiff and uncomfortable cot. It hadn’t felt like he slept at all, though it was reasonable to assume he must’ve. He felt a pit form in his stomach… that orb might be their only chance to…

A siren rang throughout the facility.

All of a sudden the iron bars of the cell shot down into the ground, opening it up to the massive chamber where dozens of prisoners marched through with stone-faced expressions. Seeing them for the first time, Shuichi noted that those present at significant muscle tone. And he was about to find out why.

“Time for work, kid”, Ol’ Gan said, pulling himself to his feet.

“What kind of work?”, Shuichi asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Dunno, it changes day to day”, was the elder’s answer as the two joined the crowd that herded through several gateways into the main factory area. Trying not to get lost in the shuffle, Shuichi stuck close to Gan and kept his eyes trained on him. 

Gan leaned down as they walked, “Assignments are on a big display, can’t miss it. We’re Cell #53 by the way”, he explained casually.

Shuichi bit his lip, what a cruel joke.

The massive crowd broke apart into different stations to fulfill their duties. Some were assembling intricate components on an assembly line, others were wheeling carts of scrap and raw materials from one end of the floor to the other. And more still were lead out of the floor in long chains, pickaxes in hand.

‘ _ Must be some kind of courtyard out there _ ’, Shuichi noted.

There was an absolutely gigantic holographic display on the back wall, upon which was a spreadsheet of all the various cell pairs in the prison, listed alongside their duties for the day. The intense blue-hue of the hologram was probably intended to simulate daylight, and keep prisoners awake and alert.

But it was harsh lighting in a grimy steel box, which bathed everything in an unpleasant aesthetic that strained the eyes to take in all at once. Gan tapped his shoulder with a chuckle.

“Don’t stare too long, you’ll go blind. Looks like we’re on shoveling duty today, lucky us”, Ol’ Gan told him, leading him through the scattered workers to an area with high chain-link fences, which contained an enormous mountain of iron ore that nearly reached the balcony above, where guards patrolled, looking down at the prisoners like animals in a zoo.

“Woah…”, Shuichi marveled.

“Tch, don’t be too amazed, you’re gonna hate it in an hour”, Ol’ Gan warned, as he returned from the equipment room with a pair of shovels, and two pairs of gloves. There were above a dozen others in this sector of the floor, already shoveling the ore into large containers that sat upon rails.

Said rails lead a few meters back to either side of several conveyer belts, which fed directly into the gaping maw of an inferno. A furnace that would rid the ore of its impurities. Shuichi could feel the intense heat from where he was standing, all the way by the pile.

He and the old man immediately began scooping up ore and dumping it into their container. It was heavy and took a good few minutes for Shuichi’s shoulders to adjust to the exercise. He couldn’t help but notice that despite his age, Ol’ Gan was going much faster than him, and spilling far less.

No doubt, he had an unfortunate amount of practice.

The cart had sensors to indicate when it was sufficiently full. When this happened, Gan would press a button on the side to send it back to the belt, where another pair of workers would be in charge of using smaller flatter shovels to scoop it onto the belt. 

After the first one went back, Gan explained, “After four hours, we’ll change roles, so look forward to it”. Shuichi didn’t quite know what he meant until they were a few more filled carts into their shift.

His forearms were started to tense and his shoulders began to ache. Shuichi wasn’t out of shape by any means, but he wasn’t used to manual labor. He shuddered to think what the next few hours would be like. His eyes kept darting to a digital clock on the wall, which was projected holographically.

It was still weird to him that this was commonplace, even in a facility like this.

“Don’t look at the clock too much, it’ll just stress you out”, Ol’ Gan warned once again, wiping sweat from his brow. It was true, looking at the clock only made one feel as if time was moving slower than expected. Shuichi attempted to focus on the task at hand.

In, out, flip, in, out, flip, in, out, flip… over and over again he performed these actions. It was tedious and left his mind to wander… but whenever it did, he only thought dreadful things, so he tried to avoid it. Eventually he forgot all about how mentally vacant the activity was and became not unlike a machine.

In, out, flip, in, out, flip, in, out, flip… those were the steps. 

Two hours in, his breathing because heavier as his body tired.

He just kept mentally repeating the steps in his head, but over time his body performed them slower and slower. He would find himself stopping after every cycle and would need to force himself to continue. His palms felt stiff from gripping the shovel for so long.

Shuichi considered asking Gan some questions to pass the time, but didn’t want to disturb the man’s rhythm. It was mostly because of his experience that they were keeping pace with the other pairs and he knew that. Awhile back a guard yelled at one of them for going too slowly.

He was in no mental state to deal with that.

Eventually they traded off jobs with the other pair, who seemed mundanely annoyed to start the more taxing duty. Ol’ Gan handed Shuichi a large flat tray and wooden brush, which were kept on a rack below the conveyor belt. Their job was the brush the ore from the cart onto the belt and feed it into the furnace.

When a brush would no longer do, it was a small scoop.

Shuichi’s back was thankful for this change of pace, as the cart was tall enough to not require as much bending. That said, it was no less monotonous and left Shuichi’s mind to wander. He had to imagine there were more efficient ways of moving the ore into the furnace.

But why invest in any of those things when you can get your prisoners to work for you and blame them for any shortcomings? That was probably the logic behind it.

His stomach growled. When was the last time he had eaten? 

He gave a weary sigh as he shuffled another tray full of ore onto the belt… that seared fish seemed so very long ago. Desperate, he turned towards Gan and asked, “W-When do we eat?” in a voice weak enough to surprise himself.

Gan took a moment to respond, as if in some kind of trance. 

“Ha? In a few hours they’ll call half the floor, when they’re done, the other half. Dunno which we are today, I don’t bother keeping track”, he answered with a soft cough.

“What do they serve here?”, Shuichi asked, not expecting anything good.

“Tch, you’ll see. Better not to have any expectations, trust me”, was the response.

As they toiled away, Shuichi kept glancing beyond the chain-link fence to the other work stations. He was concerned about his friends and how they were holding up… but couldn’t see them anywhere. He had figured young girls wouldn’t be that difficult to spot but there were a decent amount of women in the prison as well. 

In a normal prison, that might cause problems, but this place was too tightly regulated for things like that to occur. Compounding the issue was the uniform jumpsuit everyone wore, which made picking out any individuals even more difficult.

He also used this opportunity to examine the work floor itself. Guards patrolled the balconies above, and several drones hovered below. Shuichi noted what appeared to be eight security cameras positioned on each corner of the floor, and at each midway point between them. But he couldn’t be sure that was all there was.

He had no way of knowing if things like the nanokumas back inside the dome were a rarity or not.

It looked like there were only about ten guards keeping watch at any given time, which seemed small for the number of prisoners. But since the drones could incapacitate anyone on command, it likely wasn’t necessary to have a large human presence. 

By the time they were called for food, Shuichi’s body was feeling plenty sore. The realization that his work was only half-over, as Gan had informed him, caused a dread that made his entire body feel cold, despite how sweaty and warm he actually was.

They were lead out of the work floor by a pair of security drones, which floated aside to a large set of doors. They walked down a miserable grey corridor with heavy steps until they reached a cafeteria nearly the size of the work floor itself. Along the edges was one long conveyor belt, carrying trays between pipes that stretched down from on high.

As each tray stopped, the pipe spat out several items uncaringly.

Shuichi managed to snag himself a tray, noticing that the contents, while plentiful, were a random assortment of packaged foodstuff in varying conditions. Many boxes were beat-up, cans dented, and not everything was sealed properly, which caused some bits to end up on the floor.

This was junk food, but far from pristine. It looked like damaged leftovers, whatever wasn’t presentable enough to go on a store shelf ended up here. Shuichi could only imagine the hefty discounts Mabue was benefitting from by taking in so much unwanted food product.

Shuichi’s meal consisted of an expired energy drink, a package of dry cereal that had gone stale, a thin plastic bag containing two off-color tortillas, and a bag of dried pickle chips. A healthy diet this was not. 

“Heh, lucky kid. I remember my first meal here like it was yesterday, bubblegum and condensed milk… can still remember the taste, ugh…”, Ol’ Gan reminisced, getting a nasty look on his face as he recalled.

“...G-Gum? T-That’s not a meal. That’s not even a snack…”, Shuichi reacted with genuine horror.

They were too late to grab a spot on the crowded benches that filled the center of the room, so they settled for sitting against the back wall, which Gan confided that he believed in his experience to be the better option.

“Rest your back, every chance ya get, rest your back”, he said as he stuffed a packaged brownie in his mouth. 

“How long do we get?”, Shuichi asked before pouring chunks of dry cereal into his mouth, the cinnamon dust getting all over his sweaty face. He didn’t care any more, he just needed to eat…

“Maybe twenty minutes… Hey, I’ll trade ya for those pickle chips, they’re my favorite”, Ol Gan suggested, holding out a small bag of what looked like fruit gushers, but shaped like little bears. It was bizarre to hear this elderly man saying the kind of thing an elementary school kid might.

But perhaps Gan was stunted in that way.

Wincing, Shuichi agreed and started popping them in his gullet as he guzzled down nearly flat energy drink. It was so sweet and yet so off… none of this was fresh at all. His attention turned to Gan, who was contently scarfing down those dried pickle chips… he had clearly adapted to accept every little pleasure he could in this place.

But a terrible thought crossed his mind… was that going to be him one day?

Shuichi gazed at the crowd.

Apathetic, grouchy, bitter… those were the only terms that could describe them. There were no friends here, no relations of any kind… how could there be, there was no time for them. And nobody had the energy to bother trying. Petty fights broke out over preferred food items, arguments over seating, everyone thinking they deserved better than the person in front of them.

The youth sulked, wondering if they would’ve been the same way had Monokuma forced them into these conditions. Would they have had any drive to escape left after even a few days?

His lips formed a faint smile, knowing that atleast Kaito wouldn’t have given up. But as he took another look at Ol Gan, who seemed passively content… he wondered how much they really meant. What was something like strength anyway…

For all of Kaito’s bravado and determination… he had still died. Perhaps more on his own terms than Monokuma would’ve liked, but… an end all the same. Shuichi had been caught up in the excitement of that small victory before… but this was a place in reality, more than he had ever known.

For all he admired about Kaito… he never got to realize the truth.

How would it have affected him, Shuichi wondered.

Maybe clinging to those ideals was… afterall, it was because of his hesitation that they were trapped once again. As Shuichi chomped on a bland tortilla… he didn’t know what to think. And so for the time being, he simply stopped.

When they returned to their work, he was on full auto-pilot. 

In, out, flip, in, out, flip, in, out, flip…

Just like a machine.

At some point he reached a state where the exhaustion was replaced by adrenaline, and his body felt lighter than it ever had before. Of course he knew this meant the soreness was imminent, but he didn’t think about that. He wasn’t thinking about anything.

And as he lost himself in the tedium of grunt work, he was almost surprised when a buzzer rang out to signal the end of the day’s work. He took a step back, nearly stumbling over his own tired feet, realizing they had shaved down over half of that massive mountain of ore. Was that good? Bad? Guards weren’t yelling at them so he assumed it was normal enough.

But he didn’t care, his body craved rest.

It took all of his remaining energy to drag himself back to the meal hall, where he was treated to a dinner consisting of a bottle of convenience store black tea, a wrapped muffin with a weird smell, a bag of fish-shaped crackers, and what appeared to be a dietary supplement tablet. 

“Isn’t there ever fruit? Or meat?”.

“Sure, they drop a crate of fruit down on Fridays… course it’s a mad scramble since there ain’t never enough. All the meat comes from cans, some of it’s right nasty but if you plug your nose it ain’t so bad”, Ol' Gan explained, letting out a heavy yawn after gobbling up a chocolate bar that had nearly fused to the wrapper.

Shuichi practically needed to be dragged back to their cell, where the first thing he did was take advantage of the cramped bathroom it contained behind the only door. It was barely larger than a closet and contained only the toilet, a sink, a mirror, and cup that contained a pair of ratty-looking toothbrushes that he was confident had not been replaced since ‘Kakei’ passed.

For both toilet paper as well as soap and toothpaste, there were dispensers on the wall. It looked like they were part of a large system that ran through the facility, but that was just an assumption. Shuichi splashed water on his face and dried it off with an old rag that lay in the corner.

He looked at himself in the mirror… there were bags under his eyes and his hair was a mess. He hadn’t looked this rough since he was lead to believe humanity was nearly extinct. Rationally, he supposed this situation was technically better but… it was hard to appreciate that fact.

A concrete box… that’s where he was.

This was his life now, once again a prisoner.

If he had known this was their fate, he would’ve chosen to stay in that place.

That’s what he was thinking but… he sighed.

He just didn’t know.

There was a knock at the door.

“Hey kid! Hurry up!”, Ol' Gan shouted.

Realizing he was holding up the bathroom, Shuichi finished his business and bowed out. His body was grateful to be laying down, even if the cot was firm and the pillow flat. It was a massive relief to just… stop moving.

He noticed that Gan was taking awhile in there… maybe it was just an old man thing. When he finally did return, he did some stretches in the space between their cots. Looking in his direction, Ol' Gan gave warning.

“C’mon, follow my lead… you’re gonna regret it tomorrow”.

Figuring he had nothing to lose, Shuichi attempted to replicate Ol' Gan’s movements although his lack of practice was made immediately clear. That being said, he gained some amount of satisfaction from it despite his body wanting to cling back to the cot.

This was like training, in a way…

When they were finished, Gan hopped onto his cot.

“Do those same exercises in the morning, trust me, it really helps”.

It seemed like Ol' Gan was ready to turn around and hit the hay… but for some reason Shuichi felt compelled to speak.

“T-Thanks, by the way”.

Ol' Gan seemed a bit taken aback, as if he hadn’t received gratitude in a very long time.

“Tch, it’s nothin’. You’d just get yourself a beatin’ if you didn’t know how this shit worked so I figured I’d give ya a hand”, he reasoned with a dismissive gesture.

The lights of the cell block dimmed considerably, but did not fully turn off.

Shuichi almost expected a cartoon bear to announce the coming of night, but this place was too grim for even that amount of levity. Maybe it was because his brain had been on auto-pilot for so long, but Shuichi found himself weirdly inquisitive.

“Say Gan… how did you end up here? You said it happened when you were only--”, he tried to break the ice, but Gan shook him off.

“Long story. You should get your sleep while you can…”, Ol' Gan said, his voice trailing off into a light snore as he curled up facing the wall.

Shuichi sighed, he tried atleast.

He laid still on the cot, staring at the stone ceiling and not moving a muscle if he could help it. He bit his lip in frustration… he hadn’t seen the girls all day. He was starting to really worry about them. Hard work wasn’t exactly… he was just very concerned how they were coping.

Akira’s message flashed in his mind, but he shook his head with a bitter expression. 

‘ _ Sorry, whoever you are… I don’t think we’ll be able to meet your deadline _ ’.

And with that, he drifted off to sleep with ease from how exhausted he was.

* * *

 

Earlier that day...

“Sir, take a look at this”, one of the security officers said, pointing at the monitor from a comfy chair below.

The clang of the spider-walker tapped across the floor as the boss himself strolled forward to look at the camera feed displayed above. It showed a short girl with red hair collapsed on the floor of the shipping and receiving work-station. Another girl with much longer brown hair was attempting to pull her to her feet.

“That’s the third time, sir. Should we send the drone for shock punishment?”, the guard asked as per protocol.

The gargantuan man had a greasy smile on his face as he watched the girls on the monitor. Futoshi Mabue had a feeling that something like this might happen, and was pleased it was progressing according to his expectations.

“Mhmm, I don’t think so. It seems like that poor girl just isn’t cut out for an honest day’s work, such a shame. But that doesn’t mean that she can’t have her debts paid in other ways, mhmm…”, Mabue said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

The guard winced slightly.

‘ _ Just what would this guy know about honest work…? Whatever _ ’, he thought.

“So uh, what do you want to do about it?”.

“Mhmm… Send the little one back to her cell and send her friend up to see me, mhmm…”, Mabue instructed.

The guard sighed.

‘ _ Tch, this again? Whatever, he doesn’t pay me enough to give a shit… _ ’.

He tapped away at the keyboard, instructing the drone to relay those instructions. Then sat back and thought about what he was doing to do over the weekend. Probably chill out on the couch and play Final Fantasy XXVIII or something.

* * *

 

Maki helped Himiko back into their cell after the drone had released the bars. The girl slumped onto the cot, nearly tripping over herself. Maki had a look of pity on her face as she watched her wipe away tears and sweat.

Poor girl had never been worked that hard in her life… there was no way she’d make it in a place like this. Himiko knew it herself, which was why her voice was tainted with guilt as she spoke up.

“M-Maki-roll… I’m s-sorry, I j-just…”.

“Don’t worry about it, just get some rest”.

“E-Everything hurts…”.

“...I know”, Maki said empathetically. It might not have been real but… she recalled her memories of her training. There were days where she too could only throw up and cry… or not, but… those memories were real to her. Even though it was through fictional experience, she could still understand.

But despite that… she was feeling off herself.

When work began, she didn’t think she would have any problem but… something wasn’t right. Her movements weren’t matching what she told her body to do and it was throwing her off. It concerned her greatly.

“B-Be careful!”, Himiko pleaded.

“You know who you’re talking to, right?”, Maki responded.

“Y-Yeah… that’s true… I’m sorry…”, Himiko mumbled, glancing away.

As Maki was lead away by the security drone, Himiko was left all alone.

Every muscle in her body was burning, it wouldn’t stop…

She curled up into the most comfortable position she could manage on the lousy cot and bit her lip, tears flowing slowly down her face. 

‘ _ I don’t wanna be here… this is even worse than before… why did we even escape anyway if… what are we gonna do… _ ’, were her internal thoughts as she whimpered softly.

‘ _ We got caught because of me… I’m holding Shuichi and Maki back… maybe I… just… urggh… _ ’, she thought, despair gripping her mind tight as a vice.

As her sore muscles tensed, Himiko kept crying into the flat pillow.

‘ _...Why did I have to survive _ ’, was the one thing she wanted to avoid thinking at all costs… but unfortunately, negative thoughts are like a tackle machine. The harder you push them away, the harder they push back at you.

Meanwhile, Maki made her way through lifeless steel hallways to reach a bizarre room that felt as if it didn’t belong in a prison labor camp like this… but considering who ran said prison, it somehow fit perfectly.

It was like the dream room of a spoiled child, because that’s exactly what it was. An absolutely massive screen took up an entire wall, and there was a mountain of cushions in the back surrounding by what looked like rivers of fizzy soda. Along the walls were posters of all sorts of things. Violent movies, half-naked women, brands she had never heard of before.

In the center of this room was a blob of flesh almost as big as the pillow mountain. But something was different about Futoshi Mabue compared to last time she had seen him. It looked like he had slicked back his hair with gel and emitted a strong colone stench instead of the putrid sweat smell from before.

“Mhmm! Take a seat, won’t you? You must be sooooo tired”, he said, gesturing with his flabby arm towards a garishly sparkly bean bag chair in front of him.

Maki wanted to spite the man by refusing, but her survival instincts told her not to disobey someone in a spider-walker capable of crushing her head like a watermelon. Thus reluctantly, she bend down and sat on the bag.

“Maki, Maki, Maki… I’m a big fan of yours, you know? Such a striking image! And what wondrous development! Maybe you can’t tell from the sad sacks in this dump, but you’re very popular, mhmm”, he explained.

Maki gritted her teeth. Development? What an insulting way to describe what happened. 

“What do you want?”, she blurted out curtly.

“Ooooh, straight to the point! I like that, it’s so you! Like a knife to the throat, hmm? I couldn’t help but notice what a rough time your little friend has been having today. And you know, I thought to myself, that’s such a shame… there has got to be a way to make her stay a bit more… comfortable, yes?”, he went on, mouth almost watering.

Her brows furrowed in rage, murderous instinct coursing through her spine. 

‘ _ Everything here is your fault, you miserable pig! And you wanna act like a concerned bystander? Screw that… _ ’, she thought to herself.

Futoshi Mabue noticed this anger and leaned in closer.

“You’re a valuable commodity, Ms. Harukawa… mhmm, too valuable to be spending all day slaving it on the work floor. I was only thinking that you could do a few favors for me, and in return, I’ll do all I can to help your friend, mhmm… make things more comfortable for the both you”, he suggested with a devious grin.

“If you can do all that, why do I have to do what you say?”, Maki snapped, her eyes glaring at the man with a violent aura.

“Come now, dear… mhmm, there’s nothing truly free in this world, is there? You scratch my back, I scratch yours, you see. The real world is built on these sorts of transactions, you’re not in Danganronpa anymore, you know?”, he explained in a self-justifying sort of way.

‘ _ That might be true, but you’ve got way too much back to scratch. This whole scheme was rigged from the start, but… _ ’, she thought, fists clenched.

Himiko would destroy herself trying to do all the work they demanded… and if she didn’t, what would they do then? Maki couldn’t bring herself to cast that fate on her… she didn’t deserve that. The outside world was proving too unreasonable… 

She glared with seething hatred at the globulous warden that watched her every move. But despite that…

“Fine… you win”.

Mabue rubbed his greasy hands together in satisfaction.

‘ _ Oho, of course… I always win _ ’, were his thoughts.

**CHAPTER SIX**

**END**


	8. Favors And Schemes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: I've been suffering from an intense viral eye infection the past two weeks, which has made focusing on writing difficult. Nevertheless, I have pushed through to crank this out. Please lemme know what you think, your support in invaluable.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Seven**

**Favors And Schemes**

“W-Welcome home, Master…”, Maki spat out awkwardly with venom in every syllable. She stared up at a floating drone as it stared at her with an unfeeling camera-eye. Adorned in a gothic dress and cat-ear headband, her body was contorted in what could very generously be referred to as a ‘cutesy pose’.

“Mhmm… You’ve got to put more into this, Maki-roll. These are paying customers after all, they deserve a quality product”, Futoshi Mabue said, leaning back in his spider-walker, gazing at a holographic live-feed and flicking through the various reels of footage.

She bit her lip.

“Don’t call me that…”, she warned, a menacing aura surfacing.

Mabue leaned forward and squeezed her entire face between his greasy fingers, cranking her head back and forth like a doll.

“Mhmm, I can call you whatever I want, remember? Now let’s go for another pose, hmm…”, he boasted, pushing her away and stroking one of his many chins.

Mabue reached into a nearby pile of toys and pulled out a spiky-haired plushie, tossing it in her general direction. Surprised, she struggled to catch the fluffy replica of Kaito Momota.

“W-What is this!?”, she demanded to know, looking at his visage with many mixed emotions.

“Merchandise, honey. Now hold it like this and look at the camera”, he ordered, crossing his arms as if giving himself a hug… which was physically impossible given his massive girth.

“M-Merchandise?”, she parroted, her tone offended.

“Well duh, you contestants are famous! Are you really that shocked? Now hold it like I told you and remember to blush! That’s the most important part!” he barked as the drone flew in for a better angle.

Maki turned the plush around and held it to her chest, looking up at the drone with a mixture of conflicting feelings, none of which could be described as cute. Frustrated, Mabue groaned and clapped twice, his arms barely reaching eachother.

All of a sudden, an air vent opened on the floor and blew cold air straight up, causing Maki’s skirt to flutter about scantily. As her face turned red in a combination of fury and embarrassment, the drone got all the shots it needed. Mabue flicked through them with a satisfied smirk.

“Mhmm! Wonderful, wonderful…”, he murmured to himself.

“Grr… Are we done yet!?”, Maki demanded to know.

“One more should be fine for now…”, Mabue replied, flippantly plucking the plushie from her arms and tossing it on a massive pile of junk behind him. She clenched her fists as she watched Kaito’s adorable double fly away.

“Get down and dust that shelf!”, Mabue ordered, tossing her a feather duster and pointing at a low shelf pressed against the back wall. As she lowered herself to the ground and began to work, the drone flew around her at all angles, capturing various vantage points of her pearly thighs.

Her face was completely humiliated, which was great for additional shots when the drone managed to capture it. Maki tried to distract herself with the shelf’s contents, but it was a haunting reminder of her status. Several volumes of media discs filled the shelf, each a different Danganronpa season.

**Danganronpa 31: Insanity By Dawn**

**Danganronpa 32: Half Past Despair**

**Danganronpa 33: Deathribution**

**Danganronpa 34: Bloody Despair**

**Danganronpa 35: Shattered Truth**

**Danganronpa 36: Symphony of Sinners**

**Danganronpa 37: Absence of Brightside**

**Danganronpa 38: Suffering By Sea**

Maki looked away, feeling more insulted with every title.

“Excellent, these are… so good, Maki-roll”, Mabue hummed aloud, as his face contorted with glee. Maki could hear the faint sound of vibration as she looked behind her, noticing that the front plate of the spider-walker was pulsating ever-so-slightly. Given its location, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what was happening.

Her jaw locked with disgust as she picked herself off the floor.

“We done?”, she asked in a bitter tone.

“Mhmmmm, what? Oh, yes, yes of course… mhmmm, go ahead and change, and take this to your little friend”, he replied, pulling out a small tube from a compartment on his walker. He seemed distracted as his body tensed up, so he didn’t notice Maki hesitating before taking the bottle, wondering where it could’ve been.

She read the label, apparently it was some sort of soreness relief cream. 

Could it really be that effective? Well, it was the future, she reasoned.

Maki stormed off, eager to get out of the dress he forced her into. But not as eager as she was to get away from that man before he reached his peak, so to speak.

She left Mabue’s private chambers with a sense of degradation as she hung up the outfit on a hook and slipped back into her prison jumpsuit. Posing for that creep made her feel gross in many ways, but she decided she wouldn’t tell Himiko what their arrangement was.

Partly out of disgrace, but mostly because she didn’t want her to feel guilty over this. She thought back to the plushie, which she had only held for a moment, but seemed like an eternity in terms of regret. Maki shook her head and took a deep breath.

That was in the past. 

She couldn’t save him, but she wasn’t going to let anything happen to Shuichi and Himiko, not if she could help it. And for that end, she didn’t care if she had to use her body… as a weapon… or otherwise.

That said, she still felt miserable as her footsteps echoed through the hollow hallway. They needed some kind of plan to escape, preferably before that evil pile of lard called upon her ‘services’ again. Who knew what he would demand next time.

* * *

 

Mabue felt exceedingly content as he began admiring and polishing the photos on his personal computer station, with he operated with numerous holographic touch-sensitive displays. Not only was he getting ample pleasure from these shots, but he would make a killing selling them on the seedy underbelly of the internet.

“Mhmm… lucky lucky me”, he chanted to himself.

But just as he was adjusting the contrast on Maki’s perfect thighs just right, a blaring J-Pop idol tune started playing, which would’ve made Mabue leap out of his seat were it physically possible.

It was a direct video call on a proprietary underground messaging client.

This was an intensely private, invite-only service for the elite.

A chill ran down Mabue’s very long and curved spine when he read the name of the caller. 

_ Stryx _ .

W-What could the secret head of MonoCo want with him?

Publically, MonoCo’s acting CEO was a man named Inari Kageyoshi.

But Futoshi Mabue knew better, that there was a secret council that pulled even that man’s strings. The elite among even the elite of the world, a group so elusive and powerful that not even the most deranged dictator would cross them. It was not a stretch to call them the true rulers of Earth.

There was no way he could refuse a call from one of them.

He tapped a holographic prompt and his monitor showcased a shadowy figure in a room filled with advanced machinery. The only part clearly visible was the silver mask that adorned this man, which was in the shape of a sinister owl with piercing robotic eyes that seemed to judge your very existence.

That orange glow… Mabue had only heard rumor of its terror.

“Well well…”, the voice on the call echoed throughout the chamber. It was highly distorted, giving no indication of his true identity… or even any semblance of humanity whatsoever. It was evident just from his demeanor that he was as much machine as man.

“S-So y-you’re Stryx…”, Mabue stuttered, cowering slightly. It was unusual for him to show weakness to anyone, but in front of such a figure, even his boastful mountain of a man couldn’t help himself.

Those violently orange eyes turned slightly, adjusting themselves.

“And you look like an oversized baby in a stroller, though I had heard as much”, Stryx commented, the dry sarcasm amplified by the distortion of his voice.

Behind his fat lips, Mabue grit his teeth so hard they might’ve chipped.

He would not take that kind of disrespect from anyone, but even one as arrogant as him recognized a superior when he saw one. So as difficult as it was, he swallowed his massive pride and ignored the insult.

“And what are we up to today? Ordering more discount whores from the Viet-Lao Republic?”, the voice reckoned chillingly.

Mabue’s brow twitched, knowing that Stryx had accessed his dark net activities.

“W-What can I do for you, s-sir? If this is about our c-contract, I usually have the privilege of speaking with Mrs--”, he began before he was cut off.

“Do you think I would bother myself with such trivial matters?”, Stryx interrupted, the menacing eyes narrowing.

“N-No sir… I guess not”, Mabue shrivelled. 

Of course he wouldn’t get a call like this over a manufacturing contract.

“We recently lost contact with a pair of GHOST Core operatives in your vicinity. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”, the voice demanded in an accusatory tone.

Mabue adjusted accordingly. 

It might not seem like it, but he had quite the poker face when he needed it.

“Of course not. I don’t know anything about that, but if I may ask, why were the GHOST Core dispatched here? Rather remote, isn’t it?”, he replied cooly, his face stern.

“To track down our missing contestants. Clever little characters managed to escape the dome… a dome your father had constructed if I remember correctly…”, Stryx explained, tapping claw-like fingers on the end of his armrest.

“I’m terribly sorry about that! I would be m-more than happy to offer a reimbursement on damages!”, Mabue offered, wincing at the thought of having to pay out of his own pocket.

“Nevermind the damages, we’re just after the escapees. Let me guess, you haven’t seen them either? Because I know if you had, you would’ve contacted us right away, wouldn’t you? That’s how your father raised you, right?”, Stryx inquired, growing impatient.

“I haven’t, sir! But if you’d like, I can assign my guard to search the perimeter for them! Anything to assist our business partners, eheh…”, Mabue said, starting to sweat. Surely it wouldn’t be suspicious if someone of his stature starting sweating out of the blue, right? He hoped so.

There was a long pause.

Growing more sickened by looking at the obese blob, Stryx simply ended with, “Be sure that you do”. And with that, the call was finished.

Mabue breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn’t been that stressed in… well, ever.

That was when he began biting his nails in frustration. 

He needed to do something about this situation… some kind of plan to ensure MonoCo wouldn’t catch onto him, and give him the upper hand… but what?

His face turned red and crumpled as the thought of losing his new toys drove him mad. Futoshi Mabue had never had to deal with truly distressing situations so it was not something he was accustomed to. For possibly the first time in his entire life, he was encountering a genuine problem.

Mabue decided that he needed to calm down before making any rash decisions, and so he called in his many wives and requested plenty of body oil… he would be in a better mood to mull things over after he took out his frustrations on them.

He licked his lips just thinking about… everything was going to be just fine. This was his world after all, and soon enough even arrogant pricks like Stryx would bow before him. Just thinking about it was giving him a raging erection beneath the plates of his walker.

He thought about it as he slapped, berated and choked his women. Nothing made him more gleeful than seeing their conflicted faces shower him with adoring compliments as he battered and bruised them for his amusement. He would deprive them of oxygen just long enough that they would worship him for allowing them to breathe his air.

Futoshi Mabue was sucking down hard on a breast that was perhaps about a fifth the size of his own, but still very large by normal female standards. The more he thought about the way Stryx had spoken to him, the angrier he became. And so he started biting down on the woman’s chest without even realizing it, until her scream alerted him to this fact.

Upon realizing this, he only became more excited in his depravity as he bit even harder, causing her to reluctantly turn her screams into moans and begin patting the back of his head suggestively. She had been his slave long enough to know not to upset him in any way.

But she did not live up to his expectations, and so as he detached his mouth from her bosom, he used the full force of his massive arm to strike her down the floor, where she slid against the wall from all of the oil. 

“Hnng… Tell me… TELL ME I’M BETTER THAN STRYX! DO IT NOW!”, he screeched like a wounded animal. 

The woman didn’t even know who Stryx was, but did her best and rub away the blood on her face as she began to coo him. “Master, you’re the greatest man in the world! Stryx or anyone else can’t even compare…”, she whispered suggestively.

Mabue turned his attention to the other girls with a damning glare.

“Yes, of course! Nobody compares with you!”

“Every moment I get to be in your presence is a gift!”

“I love you, Futoshi… We all love you, don’t worry about anything at all”

“Mhmmm, keep it up… I’ve had a hard day and I need this”, Mabue ordered, reclining back in his walker as the girls piled atop him.

The rest of his day was more or less like this.

* * *

 

“Nyaa!? M-Maki, where did you get that?”, Himiko stammered, taking the ointment from her hand as she stood just outside the cell.

Maki bit her lip, the memories still fresh. “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just call it a favor…”.

The light in Himiko’s eyes faded as she hung her head, “W-What happened? Was it something bad?”, she asked desperately. The other girl ignored her and walked away from the cell bars, back to her work.

“M-Maki! Wait…”, Himiko shouted, reaching out to no avail.

There wasn’t anyone around, so the young girl didn’t feel all that self-conscious about undressing to apply the gel to her body, but she did feel shameful for other reasons. 

‘ _ I’m a burden to them, aren’t I… _ ’, she thought to herself as the gel was quickly absorbed into her skin. Within several minutes, she was starting to feel better… physically atleast.

Himiko laid back on the bed, a sourness filling her stomach as she worried about what Maki had done to help her.

* * *

 

Seishi continued to pound the ore with a pickaxe, as he had been doing for the past ten hours with barely a break. Impressively, he managed to maintain the exact same level of annoyance throughout his entire shift. The other prisoners almost seemed impressed with his unintentional effectiveness, clearing far more than them.

Almost, because if they didn’t pull their own weight, shock therapy from the surveilling drones might be in order.

‘ _ What the fuck is taking them so long? They have to have noticed we haven’t checked in… I bet that fat fuck is pulling some tricks to hide us here. Maybe it’s time I started looking for a way outta this… _ ’, he thought, striking the ore with every ounce of his frustration.

He wasn’t overly concerned with the human guards, he could take them in a fight, he was confident about that. It was those damn drones, as soon as started acting up, they’d swoop in and taze him. For all of his training, he was not immune to the effects of electricity.

But how was he to eliminate them? And just how many were there?

He had counted a dozen that regularly roamed the work floor, but he couldn’t be sure there weren’t more drones on standby or patrolling outside the complex. Hell, he didn’t even know what the outside of the factory looked like. How could he make a plan to run away if he didn’t even know where he was going?

Seishi’s mind was made up. He needed to gather more information.

But there were eyes on the workers at nearly all times. It was going to be impossible to reach any area of the complex he wasn’t allowed in, especially since they were confined to the ground level. If only he…

He smirked, thinking up the most devious scheme.

* * *

 

Shuichi once again found himself eating on the floor of the cafeteria with Gan during one of their precious breaks. He was starting to really feel the fatigue of constant work at this point. Even as he rested, his muscles ached as if begging him to never move again.

Tonight’s “meal” was comprised of a barely heated packaged breakfast sandwich, stale gummy worms and a dented bottle of sports drink. Well, the electrolytes were good in this situation, he reasoned as he chugged it down. A frown crossed his face… that was the only good part of this situation.

“Hey kid, I was wonderin’...”

“Yeah?”

“What’s it like out there? Outside this prison? Ain’t gonna do me no good to think about it but… after all this time, I can’t help but be curious, I guess…”, Gan asked, chowing down on grandma’s peanut butter cookies… not literally of course, it was just Grandma’s, the brand.

Just whose Grandma was it anyway…

Shuichi hesitated but figured it would hurt anything to be honest.

“I don’t actually know… I barely got to see it myself”, he admitted truthfully.

“Huh? What do you mean? Were you in some other prison before this? What kinda rotten luck is that?”, Gan responded in confusion.

“...Heh, yeah… you can say that again”, Shuichi sighed.

Gan’s face turned serious.

“You ain’t no ordinary kid, are ye?”, he asked.

“I thought I was, but… I’m definitely not”, Shuichi answered.

Ordinary… Ultimate… Real or Fake… it was all so puzzling.

Ever since they escaped, he got this far by not thinking too hard about it.

“Well, I’d ask for your story but… looks like time’s up”, Gan said, pulling himself to his feet. Shuichi’s body begged him not to stand up, but he didn’t have a choice. He told his body it would likely be in far worse pain if he didn’t. And so, their grueling work continued.

* * *

 

It was night, and all of the workers dragged themselves back to their cells as the drones and guards observed from on high. Seishi could barely contain his excitement as he marched in step with the others, trying his best not to stand out. Act miserable, blend into the crowd.

He would need to wait for things to settle down before he made his move.

There was a critical flaw in how the security was arranged, and he was fully intent to exploit it as much as he could. As the lights started to dim and the cells began to close, he waited on his cot patiently.

Patience was key for an assassin. But it had never been his strong suit.

He was the sort of man who wanted to get right into the action.

Which was exactly why he had grown tired of waiting for command to get their shit together and bail him out. That was why he felt compelled to act tonight, at the very least obtain some information and start figuring out a plan to escape. Seishi was resolute. He was absolutely not going to spend the rest of his days toiling away in this dump.

He waited until the entire chamber was quiet. Filled only with the soft murmurs of whispering convicts and the steady patter of the guards’ footsteps on the balcony above. This was when he made his move.

Crawling out of bed, he made his way to the bathroom. He was fortunate that he didn’t share the cell with another inmate, or else this would be far more difficult. Closing the door behind him, he got on the floor and immediately jammed his hand down his throat.

Instantly, he started to gag uncontrollably, but this was the intention.

Although he regretted having to forgo precious nutrition, it couldn’t be helped. Within eye-watering moments, he was vomiting all over the floor. Dissatisfied, he tickled his uvula harder. It needed to be convincing, but more importantly, it needed to be loud enough to draw attention.

Within minutes, he heard footsteps from outside the room.

A sinister glare in his eye, he pulled out his gross hand.

The critical flaw in the security… was that the drones were too big to fit through the bathroom doors. So if there was ever an emergency… 

“Hey! What’s going on in-- huh?”, a guard said as he pushed open the door… only to find a lone pile of vomit in the middle of the room, no prisoner in sight. Just as he was about to turn back, the door suddenly slammed shut behind him as he felt something yank the helmet off his head. 

Not missing a beat, he felt himself being pushed forward, his head smashing into the sink. Seishi stood over the unconscious man, grinning wickedly. Everything according to plan. Without hesitation, he began to exchange outfits with the man, and soon prisoner became guard and vice-versa.

He checked his new name-tag. Apparently he was now “Wataru Seigiri”, which he took care to remember, repeating to himself several times. Securing the helmet snugly on his head, he was surprised how comfortable it was. But more important was the faded visor, which made all the guards look almost indistinguishable at a glance.

Digging through his pockets, he found a metallic device with several buttons. This must be a universal remote for the cells on this floor. In his other pocket, he found an I.D. card, which must be used for clearance to different areas of the building.

Looking down at the now jumpsuit-clad former-guard, Seishi gave a warm smile. “Enjoy your stay, prick”, he said as if that was a cool line, and calmly exited the bathroom, making sure to close the door behind him. It was only polite, after all.

When he walked out of the cell, he clicked a button to close the cell bars.

That was when he was approached by a security drone.

“Report?”, it asked blankly.

“Upset stomach, nothing to worry about”, Seishi said in a slightly lowered tone.

‘ _ This thing better not have voice recognition… _ ’, he thought to himself, only now thinking of that possibility.

Thankfully, the drone didn’t seem to catch on.

“Acknowledged”, it stated mechanically, flying away.

Behind the visor, Seishi couldn’t help but smile once more.

It was time to gather intel.

**CHAPTER SEVEN** **  
** **END**


	9. No Good Deed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: HEY IT'S YO BOI, REMEMBER TO LIKE, COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE AND SMASH THAT BELL ICON SO YOU NEVER MISS ANOTHER VID-- wait where am I?)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Eight**

**No Good Deed**

Shuichi laid on the cot, his limbs sprawled out. His muscles were practically on fire, and the bones of his feet felt as if they were shatter if forced to walk again. His hair was a mess, drenched in sweat as he took deep breaths. He had been forcing himself not to think all day, but now that he was off work, he had no idea what to even think about.

The word ‘inhumane’ can have several meanings, but the most concise is to ‘make something not human’ or ‘no longer represent humanity’. And that was exactly how Shuichi felt at that time, like a tool, a cog in a machine more than a man with a mind his own.

‘ _ Maybe… escaping was a mistake… was this really worth all that heartbreak? Did I really fight the entire world… for us to end up like this? _ ’, he thought to himself, wallowing in despair.

Gan watched him, sitting cross-legged against the wall like he usually did.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t exhausted, he had just learned how to manage it.

“You look real rough, kid… maybe I’ve forgot how bad it really is here”, Gan said, scratch the back of his head awkwardly. 

“Ah… I don’t blame you… anyone would want to forget that”, Shuchi told him, forcing himself to sit up and face him, as not to be rude. That’s just how he was.

He grimaced slightly at his own words though.

Was it better to forget a horrible situation?

Was that why he… if he could do it again…

He shook his head.

As much as it hurt, the truth was always preferable.

Because atleast then, you can be certain your choices are your own.

Even so…

“Ya know, I dunno ifin I can sleep ‘til I know what your deal is”, Ol’ Gan said, stroking his goatee and giving a curious expression.

Shuichi clenched his fist, it wasn’t that he wanted to reject the old guy. Gan was the only light he had in this situation, that he realized as he looked into his serious eyes. This man, who had suffered for so much longer than he had, was still being this open and friendly when he had no reason to be.

In a way, he wanted to repay that kindness.

But…

“I’m sorry… it’s just kinda painful to talk about”, Shuichi said.

It was different when it was still happening, but days after the fact, Shuichi looked back upon his imprisonment in the Gifted Inmates Academy with increasing sourness. As much as he wanted to carry the good memories of his friends with him… there was also just… so much pain.

“I see…”, Gan replied sternly, “Sorry, this prolly ain’t fair of me to ask in the first place… I guess I just haven’t ‘ad… anyone to really talk to in a long time. People don’t last long here ya know… I’ve been longer than anyone. Seen so many come and go that I guess I stopped tryna get to know them…”.

Shuichi looked up, feeling the pain in those words as well.

There was a certain energy that only those who have been around death can really emit. Between the both of them, the grimy cell was positively glowing with this unfortunate aura. But strangely, it wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact… it was almost cozy, as morbid as that seems.

He took a deep breath.

“How about… I’ll tell you my story, and you can tell me yours”, Shuichi offered.

In his logical mind, it didn’t make sense. Trading one sad story for another. That was only an additive amount of negative feelings, right? But yet, atleast conceptually… it didn’t feel that way at all. It almost seemed to him, as irrational as it was, that those painful memories would somehow… cancel eachother out.

Maybe not completely but…

Ol’ Gan gave the younger man a weak smile.

“Ya know, that sounds fair”.

Bracing himself, Shuichi began.

“Have you ever heard of Danganronpa?”.

* * *

 

Himiko glanced in Maki’s direction as she slept, facing away from her.

Once again, she had refused to speak with her. As soon as she came back from her shift, she brushed her pleas off, claiming she was too exhausted to talk. Which in fairness, was probably not completely untrue. 

Tears welled up in her eyes.

‘ _ I’m so sorry, Maki. I’m so so sorry that I’m holding you guys back… _ ’, were the regrets haunting her mind as she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. 

She was worried about what had been happening with Shuichi as well. But she was even more concerned that she would only get in his way if she went out of her way to approach him. It was more frustration than her lithe frame could handle… she hated feeling this way.

Cry when you feel sad.

That’s exactly what she was doing, but was that really enough?

There was so much in this scary world she didn’t understand.

And ever since they had been captured, she felt alone and trapped in a dark place in her mind. She kept thinking of what she could do but she was no detective or fighter… what could she do to help them in this situation. Despite racking her brain, no answer came.

‘ _ Listen, I don’t care about that stuff. About how useful you are, I mean. Your life has more value than just that. _ ’, a voice echoed.

Himiko smiled faintly.

But it quickly vanished.

Those were kind words but…

They didn’t change the reality.

Eventually, she grew tired of these depressing thoughts and fell asleep.

As soon as all was still, Maki cranked her head back to look at her.

She couldn’t sleep either.

‘ _ Sorry, but if you knew what I’m doing… you would only blame yourself more _ ’, she reasoned, turning back away.

In her heart, she hoped Himiko would understand.

But she knew that no matter, it was going to be difficult.

For now… there was nothing to be done about it.

Using all of her willpower, she eventually forced herself asleep.

Everything was just so annoying.

* * *

 

There were less guards on duty at night, Seishi noticed as he walked down the upper levels. He observed the others’ movements closely as to blend in more seamlessly. The higher floors were constructed out of a cleaner-looking metal and seemed generally better cared-for. Along the walls were various paintings of Hiroshi Mabue and his son, which Seishi scoffed at.

In his mind of course, no need to draw attention.

He passed the entrance to Mabue’s private quarters, which was definitely tempting. What he wouldn’t give to beat the greasy fuck to a bloody pulp… but even one as hasty as Seishi knew that was too reckless. No, what he needed was information on the building’s layout, and if possible, to catch a glimpse of the perimeter.

Farther back he encountered the surveillance center. Sliding his stolen card key, he entered the room, which was populated by many monitors and a lone guard drinking coffee. He greeted the imposter with an unknowing casual wave before returning to his work. 

Seishi took a seat in front a terminal that the other guard would not be able to glance from that position. It was here that he arrived at his first obstacle… this terminal was logged out. He looked around… it seemed as if all the unoccupied terminals were logged out. Perhaps they did that on a timer, or maybe it was standard protocol to sign out when finished.

In any case, he wasn’t going to get any information from the login page.

Trying to act inconspicuous, he pulled out the ID Card… but it did not have any password printed upon it. That wasn’t unusual, the password would likely change often, but he figured it was worth a shot. Seishi racked his brain trying to think of a possible solution.

The guard across from him let out a hearty yawn.

Seishi grinned, that was his opportunity.

“Long night?”, he asked, feigning politeness.

“Huh? Uh, yeah… same old shit, nothing too exciting ever happens during the night shift”, the guard replied, taking another sip from his coffee.

“You eat yet?”, Seishi inquired, tapping his fingers across the desk.

“Now that you mention it, no… And I am kinda hungry too. I’ll probably grab something after this cycle…”, the guard answered, patting his empty stomach.

“Actually, I don’t have anything to do right now. Why don’t you grab a bite? I’ll watch the feeds for you”, Seishi offered, a single sweat drop falling from his brow. He almost went so far as to offer the spare change in the uniform’s pocket, but decided that would be overkill.

There was a moment of silence as the other man mulled it over.

“Yeah… Yeah, alright. But don’t tell the captain I left, got it?”, he said as he got up to leave with his coffee.

Seishi’s lips curled upward once again.

“Understood. Don’t worry about it”, he affirmed, taking the man’s seat.

As soon as the metal door slid shut behind the guard, Seishi immediately went to work. He toyed around with the interface, trying to see exactly what he could access. To his immense delight, there was a full map of the facility available to view. It had camera locations and guard patrols conveniently marked out as well, this must be a reference for new employees. 

One of the many skills Seishi had to learn in his operative training was the ability to very quickly memorize important documents and graphs. This, naturally included maps and diagrams as well. It didn’t take him much but a minute or two to full absorb the information. 

Unlike most of the other GHOST Core agents, and unlike Mikoto, Seishi was not forcefully enlisted into the program from any orphanage or warzone. As unusual as it was, Seishi tracked them down and joined of his own volition. Up until this point, he never had reason to regret it.

He had a completely normal life, with perfectly living parents.

“Study hard, son”, his father had often said, “Get into a good university and don’t cause too much trouble”. It was not as though his parents had been overly strict or demanding. As long as it was something remotely reputable, they would support him to the best of their ability.

But he was never one for academics. Becoming a lawyer, scientist or engineer… none of that boring stuff ever appealed to him. No, what he wanted more than anything else, was an exciting life. That was why he chose to be a hitman, where he figured he could make big money doing something cool and badass.

He couldn’t have been more than ten years old at the time.

The question of morality never crossed his mind.

To Seishi Yodogawa, it was a job like any other.

Just way cooler.

So between his boring study sessions, he conducted his own research. And one day, he accurately managed to predict the site of a major assassination. Seishi was not what anyone would call particularly studious, but when it interested him, he could push his brain a long ways.

It had been a foreign diplomat, staying at a classy hotel in the upper reaches of Saikyo City. Tatiana Piotr was her name. She had come to Japan to secure a crucial trade deal for the North Eurasian Confederacy, which stood to be severely disadvantageous to MonoCo’s bottom line.

Naturally, she had to die.

The agent assigned to the hit was surprised to discover an explosive device had already been planted on the target’s vehicle. It was good work too, imperceptible to common security scans by way of emitting a particular frequency. He stood up from under the trunk, baffled.

But when the assassin, who had been a tall bald man with skin paler than the fullest moon, turned around in the dimly lit parking lot, he saw before him a young boy with short red hair, gleaming in the shadows with a wicked smile.

Had he not been so surprised by the youth’s ability to sneak up this close, he would have silenced him on the spot. But the man said nothing, only stared, as if judging the quality of the boy’s soul behind his sleek shades.

“Yo. I wanna do what you do”, the boy had said brazenly.

The bald man raised a brow, “Is that right?”.

“You don’t think I can?”.

“I’m not doubting your potential. Only your motive”.

“My motive?”.

“You should pretend you were never here. Go back to civilian life and keep your head down, so someone like me doesn’t have to come for you too”, the man had told him sternly.

“Huh”, the boy remarked, not expecting such conventional life advice from a professional killer. “But I don’t see a point in being something normal if it can all be taken away by a guy like you”, he said.

“Hm?”.

“My parents keep telling me to study, to get good grades and work hard. But what’s the point if I anger the wrong people and get taken out by someone like you? I think it’s way smarter if I’m the one doing the taking”, the boy said, eyes stone cold.

“I see”, the man replied.

“So what do you say? Will you take me with you!?”, Seishi asked.

“I’ll give you one final warning, kid. This life is not for the faint of heart, and as soon as you draw blood, there is no going back. The door you’re looking at only goes one way. Knowing that, are you sure you want to open it?”, the man explained, adjusting his glasses.

A thin smile crossed Seishi’s face.

“Of course. That’s why I came here. I knew as soon as I planted that bomb that one of two things was going to happen. Either you were going to take me under your wing… or I wasn’t going to leave here at all. That’s the proof of my resolve”, Seishi said, making an arrogant expression.

The bald man, who was known for never smiling, couldn’t help but crack a smirk. The child was absolutely right, there was no way he would let a witness walk away like that. He had come here fully prepared to die if he didn’t get what he wanted… that was the kind of drive an assassin required.

“Sorry, kid”, the man said as he pulled out his silenced pistol faster than Seishi could even react to, aiming right between startled eyes.

One shot later and the boy’s body fell onto the cement.

Shadows coated them as a cloud passed over the moon.

The man walked over to the boy’s body and retrieved his blank.

“Sorry for the hell you’re about to endure”, he remarked as he slumped the child over his shoulder and fled into the night. 

Only Tatiana Piotr died that night, in truth.

For the unconscious Seishi Yodogawa, he would later awaken to the false report of his own demise… and the start of his training from hell.

As the Seishi of the current day leaned back in the office chair, he wondered what about this situation had brought back such nostalgic memories.

* * *

 

Shuichi did not go into overt detail about the events of the killing game, only the bare basics. That it was a reality show were ordinary highschoolers were injected with fictional personalities and memories, turning them into ‘Ultimate’ characters who would be forced to murder one another in elaborate ways for the audience’s amusement. 

He explained how after so much death, three lives were spared because of their friend’s sacrifice. Briefly, he went over how they had come to be forcibly imprisoned in Mabue’s factory and that was the end of his abridged retelling. There wasn’t any need to raise painful and irrelevant questions like “Why did he go through with the seesaw trick if he already killed someone?”.

“Dangerama, huh…”.

“Actually, it’s uh… Danganronpa”.

“Huh, you know I think I vaguely remember that name… I don’t think I’ve heard it in a long time though”, Gan mused, stroking his goatee thoughtfully.

“It’s been going on for a long time… that’s what Tsu… what the mastermind told us”, Shuichi said, his face uneasy. It hadn’t been that long ago he considered Tsumugi Shirogane a friend, but now… now he just didn’t like to think about her.

“Kid, that’s one crazy story… crazy enough for television, that’s for sure. You know sometimes I think I miss TV, but if that’s what sells now…”, Gan said, shivering slightly. 

“So you believe me?”, Shuichi asked. The prisoners here lived in near-total isolation from the outside world, although many were likely young enough to know of Danganronpa, considering it was massively popular. But to Gan, it must all seem like fictitious nonsense.

“Of course I do! Or well, even if I didn’t, it would be the most creative lie I’ve heard in ages. Either way… what a rotten place its become out there, making kids go through all that…”, Gan replied, rambling a bit from surprise.

“This place as well… if places are horrible as these are allowed to exist, I’m not sure I want to see any more of the world”, Shuichi admitted, clenching his fists uncomfortably. 

As terrible as Mabue Manufacturing was, it was predictable.

Even if they managed to escape here… what fresh new horrors would await them?

These thoughts made Shuichi feel a heavy sense of guilt. 

Kiibo gave his life so they could see the outside world.

And here he was, not wanting any part of it.

Wasn’t that what he had been pressing on for this entire time?

Maybe he was still too--

“I guess it’s time I returned the favor… you wanted to know how I got tossed in here, right?”, said Ol’ Gan, cracking his fingers casually as he tried to get comfortable, leaning against the hard wall.

“If you would”, Shuichi said politely.

Gan’s aged lips quivered a bit, as if he really didn’t want to proceed. But his sense of honor made him push through that hesitation as be started to tell his sad tale.

* * *

 

It all began when I was just a little tyke.

My family lived on the far side of the island, ya see. We was very traditional, tending to the local shrine, workin’ in the rice fields, that sorta thing. It wasn’t a bad life or nuthin’, I got along well with my parents and brothers just fine. I was an energetic kid so hard work suited me fine. 

But travelers from out of town would come to our village, hoping to hike the mountains, visit the shrines, sample local food. And they wasn’t like anyone in town, they had sleek clothing and flashy gizmos. Dad always said he preferred a simpler life but all that stuff was new and shiny, so naturally I was more interested in that.

I’d skip out on work to hang around town, tryna chat up the tourists. Most of them paid me no mind, some of’em thought I was amusing, like a dancin’ monkey or somethin’. I didn’t mind much at the time as long as I got to get away from the fields. 

One night… I got into an argument with my Dad.

He told me obsessin’ over the city folk was no good, that as long as I lived in his house, I had to follow his rules. Told me I wasn’t allowed to go into town for no reason no more, which made me angry. So I took the money I had and ran away, thinking I could make it in the city.

I was a stupid kid, that’s for damn sure.

Figured they’d look for me at the docks, so I decided to take another route. I had heard tell of an old train station to the south and made my way through the woods to reach it. Didn’t dawn on me ‘til I got there that it had been closed down ages ago.

But I was scared of running back home, so I stayed the night.

More than anythin’ else, I wish I had gone back.

But I was a stupid kid.

I was sitting on the beach, tryna catch some dinner with my trusty fishing rod, when a group of men in suits approached me. I flung my rod aside and tried to run, but they tackled me to the ground. Told me I was trespassin’ on private property, dragged me to the owner’s factory.

That’s when I met him, Hiroshi Mabue, a portly bastard with more moustache than kindness. He had a strict policy of putting trespassers to work in his facility. Didn’t even get a trial, he arranged everything so I’d have to serve ten years of hard labor for my ‘transgressions against his assets’, or whatever bullshit he came up with.

 From then on, I never saw my family again.

At first I didn’t do what I was told, like any rambunctious kid would.

That didn’t go over too well, unlike my Dad, the men at the factory had no trouble beating me to the ground if I misbehaved. Spent a lotta nights cryin’ myself to sleep, wondering how just long ten years really was.

Managed to adjust though, started getting good at the work. I learned to keep my head down and not cause trouble. Kept tellin’ myself as long as I didn’t piss anyone off, I’d be out in no time and I could go back and apologize to my Mom and Dad… but when the time came… I…

I was twenty years old, my body hardened from years of labor. Couldn’t believe I held together so long, but I had done it. I was getting out the next day, and all I could think about was running back home and tastin’ my Mama’s steamed halibut again. Believe it or not, prison food was actually worse back then, nothin’ but gruel, bread and water for the most part.

If Futoshi’s a lazy bastard, then his father was a cheap one.

But as I was coming back to my cell from the showers that night, I came across a trio of guards. Now there weren’t no flyin’ drones or nuthin’ yet so there were a lot more human guards, and we had a lot more interaction with them than we do these days. 

They was knocking on the cell of the female inmate. 

I didn’t know her very well personally, we’d maybe talked a few times, seemed nice. Turns out, she was gettin’ out the next day as well. We might’ve even been on the same bus, who knows. But the guards had taken a real likin’ to her, if ya know what I mean.

They pushed her around, force her against, grabbing at her and pullin’ her hair. They said they was gonna give her a farewell present before she left as a reward for her good behavior. Soon as they started tearing off her jumpsuit, I knew exactly what was goin’ on…

My muscles tensed as I stood on the other end of the cell block and watched. Face turned red, not believing what I was seein’. How could they do that to her? When she couldn’t resist? They knew if she refused them, her sentence would be extended, in retrospect, I bet that’s what they was hoping for, too.

I shoulda stayed back… I shoulda kept on walking and forgot I ever saw anythin’. If I hadn’t done what I did, the both of us could’ve been out the next day. She woulda had her whole life to forget what happened. But that’s not what I was thinkin’ at the time, oh no…

The only thought on my mind was how wrong it all was. The injustice of it all. I’d been pushed around by those thugs for years at that point and was right sick of it all. I couldn’t take lying down no more, so I charged. I rushed at one of them, knocked him on the floor and started beating him down.

The only thing on my mind was anger and crude justice.

I wasn’t thinkin’ none… My body almost moved on its own, sure it was doing what was right.

That’s when the woman took her chance.

She pulled a shiv out from under her pillow, one she had been hidin’ in secret for her own defense. And as the other two man were holdin’ her down, she started swipin’ at’em, cutting them up. Blood sprayed everywhere as she leapt at them, finally broken from years of paranoia and abuse.

That was when the alarms rang out, and more guards came runnin’.

As they pulled me away, I felt dead inside. 

I knew I had fucked up, I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved.

For the murder of two guards, that girl was put to death.

And I… I would never be allowed to leave this prison as long as I lived.

I thought back to that night for years afterward…

I hadn’t learned nuthin’, I was still the same stupid kid.

Maybe I had done the right thing... but look what it gave me. A lifetime in confinement, and her death on my shoulders. And the world kept on turnin’ like none of it ever happened at all.

* * *

 

“Gan… I…”, Shuichi gaped, unable to form any words.

The old man was sobbing silently as he retold the story.

“It’s pathetic, ain’t it… don’t bother tryna comfort me, ain’t no such thing as comfort in this place anyway. I keep thinkin’ maybe this is what I deserve for sticking my neck out… for tryna get in the way of our superiors or what have you… maybe we all just exist for them to fuck with until they get bored of us”, Gan whimpered solemnly.

Shuichi wanted to argue but… what could he say.

What words could ever defeat decades of solitude and regret?

He hung his head… there were none.

“You’re gonna ask if I ever thought ‘bout escapin’? ‘Course I have, plenty of times, but I can’t. Even if it were possible, which it ain’t… I don’t deserve to leave, knowing that woman never could ‘cause of me! I… I’m just a failure of a person, never learned nuthin’, never did nuthin’ but fuck things up for everyone ‘round me…”, Ol’ Gan muttered, teeth clenched.

Shuichi had the distinct impression that he had never said any of this out loud before. Like the emotional processing had gotten stuck ages prior, and was only just now bursting out like a broken pipe.

The old man turned away, wrapping himself in the thin sheets. 

He said nothing more than night. 

The younger boy’s eyes were empty, as if all of his own fears had magnified significantly. He had thought those same things… that he didn’t deserve to leave his imprisonment… because of everyone who never got the chance to. But even more than that… he was scared.

Scared of getting his remaining friends into anything even worse than this.

In both body and mind, Shuichi was tired… of everything.

What was the point anyway… it only hurt to think about these things.

Maybe it was better to just be a cog in the machine…

If he surrendered his mind, his will, his drive… 

He would never have to feel despair again.

Does a cog long for the world outside its clock?

No, it doesn’t.

Does a cog feel lonely or anxious about its future?

No, it doesn’t.

Does a cog have to experience the pain of loss over and over again?

No… it doesn’t.

As Shuichi drifted off to sleep… he thought… maybe it would be best, if he just stopped thinking altogether. Be the cog that Mabue, or whoever else, wanted him to be. If only to stop the pain for even a moment…

He had a dream that night.

Saw blurry figures in the distance.

Swore that he heard voices.

But nothing was clear at all.

He turned away, ignoring them.

It didn’t matter anyway.

Nothing really did.

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**END**


	10. A Promise Unforgotten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Comments, critiques, concerns, cilantro-hate all welcome.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Nine**

**A Promise Unforgotten**

 

_ Several Weeks Prior... _

They had been training for some time that night, droplets of sweat hitting the overgrown grass, almost resembling morning dew. As he reached his goal, Shuichi fell onto the ground with an exasperated sigh. He understood the theory, but why exactly he was going along with it was something he had to keep reminding himself of.

His eyes gradually turned upwards to the man spread out across the incline, gazing up at the stars. Kaito Momota, self-proclaimed luminary, whatever that meant, who had only recently started pushing him out of his comfort zone with this nightly training regime.

The man looked deep in thought.

“What are you thinking about?”, Shuichi asked, forcing his tired limbs to push himself into an upright position.

“Huh? N-Nothing…”, he had remarked stubbornly.

“C’mon, tell me. If it’s making you stare into the distance quietly, it has to be something”, Shuichi replied, trying to lighten things up.

Kaito sighed, as if defeated by such a simple request.

“I was just thinkin’... about those markings in the sink, back in Ryoma’s lab”, he explained, scratching his head awkwardly.

Shuichi’s pleasant smile turned into a neutral grimace.

The trial had already ended, but it still hurt to think about. He had been using training to distract his mind from the cruel reality that they had just lost another pair of classmates.

“You too, huh? At the time, I was eager to believe Kirumi’s story but… every time I think back to that scene, it just doesn’t add up. If… If Ryoma had truly given up, why was there so much evidence of struggle?”, Shuichi pondered, letting his body lay loose on the field.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

“I’m not sure what’s worse… thinking Ryoma had given up… or knowing that he hadn’t and still…”, Shuichi began, but was cut-off abruptly.

“Of course it’s better!”, Kaito interjected.

“Huh?”.

“Even though things turned out the way they did… I feel better knowing he didn’t give up! Wanting to live is never a waste, even if you die. That’s the strength of our pride, as living beings!”, Kaito argued, hunched up in excitement.

Shuichi smiled faintly, that was such a Kaito thing to say.

The mood dropped soon after.

“But still… that isn’t always enough”, Kaito remarked coldly.

“What do you mean?”.

“I mean that… he was still alone. In his mind, he believed he had nobody. Maybe I said some harsh things but… I just thought that was a real shame. Because we can only go so far by ourselves”, Kaito went on, grabbing a rock off the ground and chucking it away.

But then he looked up again, as he always did.

“It’s like space. I don’t think any one person could ever reach it by themselves. It took so many generations of research, trial and error and all kinds of people to figure it out. And because of all those people working together, humanity started doing the impossible!”, he continued, pumping himself up.

Shuichi rested his head on a soft patch of grass, just listening to him go on.

“Listen up, Shuichi. Some people, like Kokichi, think relying on others is a weakness. But they’re wrong. When you only do things for yourself, that weakens your resolve. But when you have someone to commit your resolve to, you can do impossible things. Like a mother lifting a car to save her children, it’s only possible because of that bond”, Kaito explained, rambling on inspirationally.

Shuichi was sure there were better scientific explanations for events like that, but Kaito’s words were so comforting, he couldn’t help but take them to heart. He even thought that could’ve been why Kaito had decided to…

He smiled, he didn’t need to know the reason.

* * *

 

_ Present Day... _

There was nothing in Shuichi’s mind.

He awoke with tired eyes, but he ignored their cries for sleep.

He stood up with exhausted muscles, yet he ignored the soreness.

It was incredible how much the human brain could ignore reality if it truly wanted to. Shuichi was completely physically and emotionally drained and vacant, eyes greyed over as he and Gan marched with all the others onto the work floor. Even the old man seemed taken aback by his silent, mechanical movements.

He was assigned to carry large crates of ore from one end of the floor to the other. Without question, he did so. Bend the knees, reach out, lift, walk forward. It was all so simple when it wasn’t complicated with worrisome things like pain or despair. He didn’t need to feel anything anymore, all he needed to do was work.

One, two, three, four… nevermind, it was pointless to count.

He didn’t need to know how much crates he had moved, or how many were left. He would continue to move them until he was instructed to stop. Exhaustion was no longer a concern. He would keep moving, if his body gave out, so be it. If he was beaten for stopping, so be it. 

Without knowing it, Shuichi had forfeited his mind.

No more hope. No more despair. No more truths and lies. 

No more anything.

All he needed to do was work.

Gan watched on with weary eyes as the boy performed his expected tasks with efficiency, despite his shaking limbs. He had seen this so many times before… eventually they all reached this point, atleast for a time, where the reality of their situation utterly broke them.

He couldn’t help but feel guilty, wondering if telling his story had resulted in this, but knew deep down that it would’ve happened sooner or later anyway. He continued his own work, assuring himself that there was nothing to be done about it.

Shuichi kept moving.

Over and over.

His mind completely blank.

He had no more willpower for unnecessary things like thinking.

So he didn’t.

And soon the hustle of the factory faded away.

There was only silence.

He didn’t need to watch where he was going, his body just maneuvered by pure instinct. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth… forever.

…

…

…

…

…

…

_ It’s a promise _ .

…

…

...

Had someone said that once?

…

…

…

…

…

It didn’t matter.

…

…

…

…

…

He had broken that promise, hadn’t he?

…

…

…

And here he was, breaking it again.

…

…

…

None of that mattered anymore.

…

…

…

Does a cog care about promises?

…

No, of course it doesn’t.

…

And neither would he.

…

…

But… that whimpering sound…

…

Someone was crying.

…

Crying out for him.

…

Not in words but in their soul.

He was needed.

Nonsense, there was work to be done…

‘ _ No! _ ’, a thought pierced the veil, ringing out, echoing across his mind.

His vision returned, sound enveloped his ears once more.

He was back, he was aware.

He had dropped the crate in a stunned moment of shock.

Before his eyes, a girl was crying, huddled on the cold floor.

“Getting out early again? Aren’t you special? Isn’t she special, girls?”.

“Yeah, real special! Whose dick you sucking to make that happen, huh?”.

“Why aren’t you talking, huh? We’re asking you nicely!”.

The girl was being kicked down by a group of older women.

She could only block so much with fragile arms, and every time she moved them, they redirected their assault somewhere else. Shuichi almost slipped back into the void, not even knowing why he had stopped, until…

That short red hair… he knew her! He knew that girl!

How could he have forgotten?

Rage, unbecoming of a cog, consumed him.

He rushed at them, adrenaline propelling him forward.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!”, he shouted, shoving them all away and kneeling down beside the beaten girl.

It only took a single glance for the girl to wrap her bruised arms around him, crying into his shoulder. Shuichi was too emotionally overwhelmed to know what to do next… it felt as though time had slowed to a crawl.

“S-Shuichi! Shuichi! I’m… I’m scared and tired and… and… I can’t do this anymore… I just… I just…”, the girl mumbled through broken sobs. Eventually even those uncertain words turned to mush as she started hyperventilating.

Tears began to flow from his eyes as well.

He could numb himself to his own pain, but…

Seeing Himiko like this… that couldn’t be ignored.

He wouldn’t let himself ignore this any longer.

Not when it was someone else…

Shuichi couldn’t forgive himself for standing idly by.

A surge of resolve filling every fiber of his being, he leaned in close, whispering in her ear.

“Himiko… I’m going to get us out of here, okay? Just be strong a little longer, alright? Trust me”.

She pulled away and wiped her tears with the sleeves of her jumpsuit.

“O-Okay… Okay, I… I trust you… I trust you, Shuichi, I…”, she blubbered, face completely flush.

He placed a comforting hand on top of her own.

This felt familiar somehow…

But he understood. It was his turn now.

Just as they had been there for him, he needed to be what they were to him.

_ When you have someone to commit your resolve to, you can do impossible things. _

‘ _ Kaito… _ ’, he thought to himself, with a mind free to think, ‘ _ Is this how you felt too? _ ’.

He grabbed her hand firmly and helped her to her feet.

The angry women had only grown angrier as time seemed to return to normal.

“Who the fuck do you think you a--”, one of them began, before a solid kick was delievered to her jaw.

The pair on the floor looked up to see a another, younger girl with short blond hair had entered the scene. As the other women threw punches, she effortlessly ducked, causing them to strike one another instead. With all three women groveling on the floor in pain, the girl looked over her shoulder for just a split second before taking a step forward.

“W-Wait!”, Shuichi called out.

The girl turned around.

“...Why?”, was all he muttered.

The girl, whose name was Mikoto Itsuki, glanced away.

“Because the one whose supposed to kill you is me”, she said coldly.

With that, she returned to her own work.

Several guards arrived to assess the commotion.

“Take these ones to confinement, and you get back to work”, the leading guard ordered, pointing to the three women and Shuichi respectively.

“What about this one, sir?”, another asked, gesturing to Himiko.

“She’s to return to her cell, special instructions”, was the answer.

Himiko looked up at Shuichi, not wanting to leave. But she knew she would only causes further problems if she didn’t. He gave her a confident smile, the best he could forge and sent her off. 

As he returned to work, he only just then realized how numb his muscles were. But he was done with pretending this situation wasn’t horrible, if he had been alone, that might’ve been the only way to cope, but he realized in that moment that he had people he needed to move forward for.

They had finally taken back their lives, and he was not going to let them be squandered in a place like this. He had promised to get them out… and while he had done so, no interpretation of their current status could be seen as free. His mission… to honor her memory, was far from over.

There might be fewer of them than he had hoped, but that only made him more resolute to protect them. His face contorted awkwardly as those thoughts crossed his mind. It was so unlike him to think that way… he almost sounded like… well, he supposed that was the goal afterall.

Gan however, watched the boy from afar.

Taking a deep breath, and rethinking a lot of things.

* * *

 

_ Earlier that day... _

There was security alert that bleeped throughout the upper levels of the facility as Seishi continued his undercover snooping. Another guard, who happened to be keeping watch outside of Mabue’s collection room, answered a call on his helmet radio.

“Uh huh, yeah, alright. Hey, report down to the helipad, they need someone to run escort”, the guard said, pointing at Seishi, unaware of his identity.

“Escort?”.

“Boss has a guest coming, no big deal”, the guard explained.

‘ _ How interesting… _ ’, Seishi thought to himself as he wandered off, using his memorization of the building’s layout to reach the helipad, which was actually on a mid-level between Mabue’s private quarters and the factory floor, on a slight off-shoot from the main building. 

This was a good opportunity to get a look at the exterior.

When he arrived, the lights surrounding the landing platform were glowing rhythmically to signal the incoming vessel. Seishi took his chance to survey the ground below. The entire complex was surrounded by a chain link fence, roughly five meters high and topped with barbed wire. 

On each corner of the square lot were slightly taller grey watchtowers equipped with spotlights and snipers at the ready. Given this place’s reputation, Seishi surmised those snipers must have the cushiest gig aside from Mabue himself. He had no doubt however, that he would be dead shot if he tried making a break for it now.

He couldn’t see it from his position, but he knew from the map he found that there was a main gate on the other side, which was stationed with atleast two guards at all times, in addition to mounted auto-lock turrets. Between the fence of the walls of the factory, guards patrolled intermittently but there were definitely exploitable gaps.

The main gate was suicide as long as those turrets were operational. He would much rather take his chances with the snipers. From this understanding, the ideal plan would involve getting out through the back after somehow neutralizing the snipers on either side. 

Unfortunately, the area inside the fence was pretty well lit-up, even when it was dark out. It would not take long for them to notice a cut fence and that’s where the real difficulty laid. It was one thing to get out, it was another entirely to get away.

This train of thought came to an end as the helicopter gracefully landed on the platform, an eccentric figure waddling out from the passenger cabin as the vessel’s propellers slowed to a stop. It appeared to be a somewhat lanky man dressed in a white coat, whose face was covered by a classic yellow smiling face mask.

“Good morning to ya, Mooky McMook. Allow me to introduce myself, although I’m sure you’re not paid enough to care, my name is Estavez Egaoka but you and everyone else can just call me by my, ahem, professional handle”, the man said in an exaggerated rubbery voice fit for a cartoon.

“A-And that is?”, Seishi inquired, taken aback.

The man leaned in close, expression on the mask not changing.

“Doctor Smiley”, he said with a static one befitting his namesake.

“A doctor? You’re a doctor?”.

“Sssssh, don’t let the board know that! Teehee, I’m what you might call an under-the-table, behind-the-dumpster, no-questions-asked kind of doctor, if you catch my drift?”, Doctor Smiley explained, straightening his tie, which was a firm black with blooming sakura flowers.

“You’re a criminal doctor?”.

“Criminal!? Oh heavens no! The healthcare industry are the real criminals, my boy. I’m bringing medicine back to the people, one organ transplant at a time. If anything, I am a philanthropist”, he ranted as the two walked down the stairs and inside the facility.

“Is that why you’re here, an organ transplant?”, Seishi asked.

“No no no, afraid Mabue’s hearts are still beating strong. You’d be surprised by much blood ten of those bad boys can pump”.

“He has t-ten hearts?”, Seishi stammered in surprise.

“Well of course! You didn’t think his… ahem, generous frame could be supported by just one, didya? Why it’d have to be the size of a baby elephant to keep that body moving. No, he’s acquired only the healthiest hearts from his various debtors. Gotta tell ya, that was no easy surgery, but I love a challenge!”, Doctor Smiley elaborated, practically galloping down the hall.

“So what does the boss need?”.

“Hmm… I dunno yet! Must be pretty important to make a house call at the crack of dawn! I hope it doesn’t take too long though, my little Tomoya has a big soccer game today and if I miss that, my husband will never let me hear the end of it!”, Doctor Smiley said with a casual laugh.

“Er, right…”, Seishi replied, off put by the upbeat nature of the man.

Just as they arrived at their destination, a pair of guards walked up from the other direction, a skinny girl bound in rags and chains awkwardly walking between them. She was blindfolded, and thus was unaware of her surroundings, but as they ordered her to stop, she shouted.

“Chào! Bạn đón tôi ở đâu?”.

She had very long black hair that nearly sprawled across the floor, and pale skin nearly reminiscent of moonlight. It looked as though she had not seen the sun in a very long time, nor eaten a proper meal. 

“Poor thing, just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”, Doctor Smiley said, wiping a pretend tear from his fake dot eyes.

“Uh, well, you get used to it around here”, Seishi made up, shrugging.

Although neither knew it, this girl was the daughter of a chronic gambler, who had accrued a large sum of debt in his attempts to make it big at a string of south-asian casino chains. When the time came to collect however, he opted instead to take a nosedive out the window of his sixteenth floor apartment. 

But despite this, his debts still needed to be paid.

The girl had been bounced around from owner to owner in the ensuing years, never knowing why she had been abducted from her home. And now she stood before the entrance of Mabue Manufacturing’s medical ward. The massive metallic door, necessary to facilitate Mabue’s enormous girth, shot open, revealing the bulbus boss himself.

“Mhmm, excellent. Good of you to arrive on such short notice, Doctor”, Mabue croned, rubbing greasy palms together. No doubt having just finished off a tub of fried chicken… or maybe it was natural? It was hard to tell sometimes.

“And a good morning to you, tubs! What can I do ya for?”, Doctor Smiley replied, patting Mabue’s back, causing ripples to flow from the fat like a stone dropped in a still pond.

Mabue winced and grit his teeth, his ego bruised slightly, which was not difficult to do. But he managed to suppress his urge to choke the life out of the man, by taking out his frustration on the scared girl instead, grabbing her hair and yanking her into the medical ward.

“Dừng lại! Chuyện gì xảy ra với bạn vậy!?”, the girl screamed as Mabue whipped her across the room onto an operating table without a care. Instantly cuffs shot out to secure her in place.

Seishi casually stepped to the side, curious as to what was going on. Hoping that Mabue was too preoccupied to think of sending him out of the room. Doctor Smiley waltzed over to the girl and gave her a quick look-over.

“Ah, the problem is clearly malnutrition”, he announced proudly, as if he had just solved a great mystery.

“I don’t care about her problems! I have a problem!”, Mabue shouted as he input a command on his holographic keyboard.

A image floated in mid-air, projecting from his spider-walker.

“I need to know if you can make this wench look like this”, he said, pointing to the image with his chubby pointer finger, which was drenched in sweat from the exertion of merely existing.

Doctor Smiley took a close look at the image.

“Wait, isn’t this the Ultimate Assassin?”, he replied.

“Oh good, you’re familiar. That saves me the trouble of explaining”, Mabue said.

“I mean, I could probably get somewhere in the ballpark. But without a full scan, it’s not going to be all that convincing, I’m afraid”, Smiley admitted, twirling a scalpel in his hands. The girl on the table had a cloth gag wrapped around her mouth, bounding her head to the table, but her eyes darting from one figure to the other in horror.

‘ _ What the hell is he planning here… _ ’, Seishi wondered, surveying the scene.

Mabue bit his fat lip as he pulled up more files.

“Couldn’t we, I don’t know, forge a full scan with all the footage from the show?”, Mabue suggested, flipping through episodes he had stored on his private server. 

“Worth a shot! Grant me access and I’ll see if I can compile something”, Smiley said, pulling a slim tablet from his coat pocket and flicking around through his various programs.

Seishi crossed his arms and leaned back against the far wall by the door. 

‘ _ He wants to create a doppelganger of that Harukawa girl? But why? He’s already got the real thing locked up here… but this does present me a solution to my immediate problem… _ ’, he thought to himself, glancing over the good doctor with a spark in his eyes.

Doctor Smiley held up his tablet with… the same smile as usual.

“Good news! I can replicate Harukawa’s features with 98.6% accuracy!”, he announced, showcasing a mockup render the program had compiled from various Danganronpa V3 footage.

A devious grin crossed Mabue’s face, fat folding in ways that shouldn’t be possible, “Mhmmm… marvellous, do get to work right away. And you!”, he barked, pointing at Seishi, “Keep watch over our friend here, make sure he earns his pay”, he ordered.

“Uh, yessir!”, Seishi replied with a firm nod.

“Injecting muscle relaxant… hm, you don’t appear to have any morphine ready…”, Smiley said, looking all around the space as he shot chemicals into her neck.

“Mhmm, that is an unnecessary expense”, Mabue said coldly, leaving the room with only the mechanical clangs of his walker.

Doctor Smiley shrugged as he readied his tools.

“Sorry kid! I promise this won’t hurt a bit… it’ll hurt a lot. Like seriously, this is going to be excruciating. You ever hear of a bullet ant sting? This is gonna be like that, except a few thousand of them, all over your face, for the next few hours. I would tell you not to scream, but you’re physically incapable of doing that so… away we go!”, Doctor Smiley explained as he went to work.

The girl’s eyes bulged out of her skull as the doctor scraped and molded her face with a large assortment of sharp tools. As he warned, she was no longer capable of screaming, or moving at all, her entire existence throughout the procedure was to be a vessel for an inhumane amount of pain and suffering.

All the while Doctor Smiley hummed himself an upbeat tune. 

It certainly was easier when they weren’t screaming.

**CHAPTER NINE**

**END**


	11. Dog Eat Dog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Listen you ingrates. I've tried playin' Mr. Nice Author and keeping this shit civil but NO MORE! I have kidnapped your [MOST BELOVED FAMILY MEMBER] and am holding them hostage until you write a comment telling me in EXPLICIT DETAIL what you think of my fic. Every hour this demand is not met, I will break another one of their toes... and you don't want to know what'll happen when I run out of toes... so you better pay up.)
> 
> (A/N: JK. OR AM I? nah i'm just playin'... OR AM I!?! nah nah, i am, it's co--OR IS IT!? ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE THAT RISK??)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Ten**

**Dog Eat Dog**

It was the end of another day’s work, and Shuichi was, much to his feets’ chagrin, standing by the iron bars of his cell, gazing in every direction to try and gather any information he could about how they might be able to escape. On some level he knew that it was probably pointless, but he felt compelled to continue regardless.

He was going to get them out.

That was what he had to tell himself.

Gan said quietly on his cot, staring the boy down with weary eyes. 

With a deep sigh, he seemingly reached some kind of decision.

“Hey, kid…”, he whispered, calling him over.

Shuichi was so focused he almost didn’t notice, but turned around to face the friendly old man. “What is it?”, he asked calmly.

Gan swallowed a nervous lump in his throat and nodded his head in the direction of the bathroom door.  Shuichi was confused at first, but after a subsequent nod, he got the message, although he didn’t understand what he meant exactly.

Shuichi hesitantly walked towards the bathroom door, letting himself in. He turned back and looked at Gan expectantly, but he only pointed to his non-existent wristwatch, signalling him to just wait. Biting his lip in confusion, the younger man slowly closed the door and backed away.

He wondered what he wanted… but didn’t have to wonder for long.

Several minutes later, Gan slipped inside, carefully closing the door behind him. The old man got right up in his face and whispered, “Are you serious?”. Shuichi, intuitively understanding what he meant, simply nodded firmly. They had to be as discrete as possible, if they were overheard, they could be ratted out.

There was a conflicted look on the elderly man’s face as he bit his lip.

“Alright… then I have something to show you”.

He walked past Shuichi and took hold on the edges of the mirror pinned to the wall, and without much effort dejected it from said wall and placed it gently on the side of the sink.

The younger man’s eyes widened as he noticed it instantly.

There was a long tear in the sheet metal that made up the wall.

Careful not to make too much noise, Gan lifted the metal flap up to reveal a brick wall, pressing gently against a single brick to push it out of place, as if it were held together by nothing but a dream.

Feeling the slight waft of foreign air, Shuichi walked forward and peered through the hole created. What he saw blew his depressed and anguished mind, the hole lead directly into a crawl space on the other side of the cell block. A musky brick tunnel just big enough for a human to fit through, wiring plastering the far side.

The amazement subsiding, he turned to the older man with a puzzled expression.

“If you’ve had this… then why…?”, he asked.

“...It wasn’t me what did this”, was the answer.

“Huh?”.

“One of my old cellmates… he never could adjust to life in here… was always so desperate to get out. Snuck a tool past the security gate and worked on this in secret for days. All these bricks are loose, ya see…”, Gan explained, pushing another loose to prove a point.

“D-Did he…?”.

“No. The further he got, the more scared he got. Even when it was done… he couldn’t bring himself to go through this hole… took his own life the very next day. I was the only one what ever knew ‘bout this…”, he said, looking at the hole somberly.

“...Is it the same with you?”, Shuichi asked, his tone light.

“What you talkin’ bout?”.

“I mean, you’ve known this was here… are you also scared of going through with it?”.

“...”, Gan didn’t reply, letting loose the flap and gently brushing his hand across the cold metal wall.

“...Gan?”.

“Kid… I’ve lived my entire life in these walls. At some point… it’s the thought of leaving that becomes harder. I guess in the back o’ my mind, I know how bad it really is in ‘ere but… in a way, it’s still easier than the unknown…”, he explained, a voice heavy with sadness.

Shuichi’s shoulders sank.

“But this isn’t really living… you have to know that”.

“...I told ya afore… I ain’t sure I deserve such a thing”.

“Gan. I would’ve gone crazy in here if it wasn’t for you”, Shuichi said with a slight smile.

The old man glanced back in surprise.

“If it wasn’t for the kindness you’ve shown me, I would’ve been too overwhelmed by the cruelty to find my courage… it almost happened any way. Despite everything, you’re still a good person… I think that’s really admirable”, Shuichi told him genuinely.

He couldn’t find his strength relying solely on the words of ghosts.

Moving forward required… humanity.

Gan’s eyes welled up, though he tried his best to hide it.

Nobody had ever said such kind things to him before… atleast, not in a very… very long time.

It had been so long… so very, very long… since he felt like his life had any value at all. There was a heavy feeling in his withered chest that he was not used to, a different kind of pain… was it even pain? It hurt but… it felt right. Not good, but right. Important. That sort of thing. The sort of thing he had forgotten even existed in this world.

“But… I can’t kid, I just…”.

Shuichi took the man’s hand.

It was rough, having endured so much, but it was still warm, despite everything.

“Come with us. I can’t say things will be any easier outside but… you deserve to see it. I’m sure… I’m sure there’s plenty of good outside these walls too…”, Shuichi told him sternly.

Gan looked him in the eyes.

“I can’t… I can’t, kid. I’m… I’m too old, it’s too late… I’ll only slow ya down…”, he mumbled under his breath.

“You’re the strongest old man I’ve ever met. You’ll be fine”.

“If I’m rememberin’ rightly… I’m the only old man you’ve ever met”.

The two of them shared a real moment of laughter.

Laughter like this… he had forgotten that too. They both had.

“Look, at the very least, I’ll help you as much as I can… that’s the least I can do”, Gan said, firmly.

“Fair enough”, Shuichi said, not pressing it any further.

Gan peeled back the metal flap and pointed down the shaft.

“You’re gonna have ta figure out where your friends’ cell is and pry the bricks loose, after that ya gotta tear through the metal sheet covering the other side. Gotta work slowly, lest anyone hear you”, he explained.

“But with what?”, Shuichi inquired.

Gan bent down below the sink and pulled the porcelain cover away from the wall, revealing a small hole where the pipes lead. Tucked away in a space between the pipe and the floor was a small, sharp chisel. Shuichi nodded in understanding as Gan quietly pushed the porcelain back into place.

Pointing down the other end of the tunnel, he continued, “There’s a maintenance hatch on that side, it’ll getcha out into the courtyard, from there ya just gotta worry about gettin’ past the fence, but we’re facin’ the back so security ain’t tight”.

“We should scout it out first and see what’s what…”, Shuichi suggested.

“Aye, but be careful. I don’t think they can see ya from the hatch’s exit but you’ll be gettin’ in real close to the patrols”.

“You know this place well…”, Shuichi sighed.

“Unfortunately”, Gan said with a slight grin.

Taking a deep breath, Shuichi started pushing more bricks out of the way.

“Wait, what’re you doin’?”, Gan asked, panicked.

“I’m going to take a quick look… I’m most worried about getting through the courtyard… before we commit to this plan, I just… I just need to see for myself”, he answered, making sure to stack the bricks so that they could be put back quickly.

Gan sighed, but did not argue.

“Just remember, go slow. They don’t check these crawl spaces, but you do not want to be heard”, he warned as Shuichi used the stack of bricks as a step to get up on top of the sink, before pulling himself into the gap in the wall, which was now just big enough to slip through.

The ground was dusty, obviously having never been cleaned.

He found himself struggling not to hit his head on the brick ceiling.

It really was a crawl space, in a very literal sense. Only at the ends could you feasibly even raise to a kneel. This was clearly a part of the architecture that had been long forgotten about. Shuichi looked down the path… it was impossible to tell where the girls’ cell was from this side, there were no markers of any kind.

They would have to measure it out, somehow. But he atleast knew from watching Himiko leave the work floor that they were on the same side of the cell block, which was a stroke of fortune because there was no guarantee of a similar crawl space on the other side leading anywhere good.

Taking a deep breath, Shuichi started crawling along towards the maintenance hatch. The ground was cold, mostly comprised of dirt and stone. It felt uncomfortable to move across with his elbows and knees as points of contact, but he pushed such entitled complaints aside as he forced himself forward with tired limbs.

He saw a roach scurry by, which was gross, but he had much bigger problems. He found himself clearing several cobwebs that impeded his path, but that was only further evidence of how forgotten this space truly was. Eventually he arrived at the end of the tunnel, into a cylindrical concrete chamber with a set of steel bars embedded into the side, leading up to the hatch.

There was no window, so it was impossible to see what was above.

Climbing the ladder, he pressed his ear against the hatch, listening for any sign of danger. The hatch was right on the ground, so any movement nearby should, in theory, carry. But he heard nothing.

Building his courage, he pulled back the latch on the hatch and pushed the door upward, the reality not escaping him that his escape could be halted right then and there. He closed his eyes, as if expecting to be shot immediately… but there was nothing but an influx of cool night air.

Quickly, he poked his head up, standing on the highest bar of the ladder.

He needn’t have worried, the hatch seemed to be tucked away behind some kind of exterior paneling. There seemed to be huge steel panels secured just a few feet in front of the complex, where various electrical equipment was kept. Shuichi didn’t hear anyone nearby so he reluctantly lifted himself out of the tunnel and onto the ground.

Real ground…. He savored that for a moment.

Slowly, crouched low to the ground, he made his way to the side of the massive steel panel and peered over the edge to get his bearings. His eyes widened, he could see it! It was the fence on the far side of the complex! Freedom was a mere twenty feet away…

Said freedom was blocked off however, by a fence that was easily atleast twenty feet tall, and topped with barbed wire for good measure. The space between the panel and the fence was a wide stretch of perfectly lit and perfectly cut grass… anyone would stick out on that.

In addition, he could see that there were watch-towers on either side of the long fence… and probably cameras he couldn’t see from his perspective. He may have found a way outside, but it would be an entirely different matter to truly escape.

‘ _ It has to be at night… if we can get far enough away, they shouldn’t be able to see us in the dark forest.... _ ’, Shuichi thought to himself, looking around.

As he thought that, he heard footsteps coming around the bend, so he ducked back behind the panel as they passed. Taking a quick glance after they did, he saw that it was two guards walking along casually, on patrol. Trying to make his breathing as quiet as possible, Shuichi decided to wait and see how long it would take for them to circle back around.

His heart was pounding out of control.

Palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy, breathing unsteady, could he possibly be caught already? He distracted himself in the safety of unarguable numbers as he occupied his mind solely with counting the seconds until their return. By the time he saw them again, it had been exactly 613 seconds by his count. That was just over ten minutes.

Ten minutes… ten minutes to act.

That was assuming they could do something about the guards on the watch towers… and potentially present cameras. Could they somehow distract the guards? But what about those cameras… he didn’t know if there even were any but… no, there had to be cameras, why wouldn’t there be. He could not bring himself to simply assume there wouldn’t be cameras! But where were they?

He gulped… what if the entire area was filled with nanoscopic cameras? Like the killing game had? Was it possible he had already been seen? Anything was possible… he couldn’t make any assumptions. The fear was starting to get to him, so he pulled back and slipped back down into the tunnel below.

No… if there had been nanoscopic cameras, he surely would’ve been found out after ten whole minutes. But there was a part of him that just couldn’t be absolutely sure, and it was driving him mad.

Shuichi sat at the end of the tunnel for a good while, trying to calm himself down. This was good, this was a possibility.... It just needed to be refined into a plan. The first step was to open a hole from the girls’ cell… after that… they’d figure it out. They’d come up with… something.

Excitement was racing through him… he wanted to keep going, to keep acting on this fresh lead but… that was all he could do tonight. He would have to ask for the girls’ cell number tomorrow. If he had that, he could calculate exactly how far he needed to go to reach them… how was he going to communicate this plan to them in the first place? 

They couldn’t exactly discuss it in the open… but there had to be a way.

Reluctantly, he dragged his weary frame back through the tunnel and into his cell’s bathroom, where Gan was nowhere to be found.

‘ _ He must’ve gone back… old guy needs his sleep after all _ ’, he thought as he started stacking the bricks back into place, folding the metal sheet down and securing the mirror on the wall. It seemed like at one time it had been glued to the wall, but now simply rested upon the back edge of the sink.

As he took a step back, he was amazed. It was like the hole was never there.

With a small hope in his heart, he returned to his cot… and almost instantly fell fast asleep.

* * *

 

“Phew, all done!”, Doctor Smiley remarked, placing his tools on the table behind him.

The girl’s face now wrapped in bandages, but once healed, she would be an almost perfect copy of Maki Harukawa. The good doctor pretended to wipe sweat from his brow, which was really just a mask, and started to stretch out his back with a long sigh of relief.

Seishi saw the opportunity and dove head-first.

“So doc, you can just… do that? Give someone a new face?”, he asked casually.

“Hm? Was that you, Mookington?”, the doctor replied.

“Heh… Trust me, I’m more than some mook”, Seishi said, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

“Why do you ask? Want me to adjust your mookish face into something more notable?”, Smiley shot back, still amused with his own insult.

“Uh, no… my face is perfect the way it is, thanks”, Seishi assured him, stroking his clear chin from under the faded visor of the guard helmet, “But there’s this one prisoner that needs to be, uh… disciplined”.

“Ah, say no more, say no more! Fetch me the perp and I’ll fix him right up!”.

“R-Really? Just like that?”.

“Why not? It’s fun”.

“Tch, I like the way you think, doc”.

“Ah, well, I’m very unique in that regard”.

“...What do you mean?”.

“You see…”, Doctor Smiley began, tapping the top of his head, “Long ago, I removed the part of my brain that deals with all that pesky ‘morality’ nonsense. Ever since then, I’m free as a bird! Life’s really more fun when you don’t have to worry about this and that, you see?”.

“Y-You removed part of your own brain?”, Seishi replied, a little stunned.

Doctor Smiley nodded enthusiastically, “You betcha! Want to join me? It’s more fun on the silly side!”, he suggested, spreading out his arms like a mad scientist.

Seishi stepped back, “Uh… aha… no, thanks. I’m good. Morals or not, I like to feel in control of myself…”.

“No no, boy! It’s those blasted imbued morals that restrict us! Removing them is like overclocking a computer, bringing out its full potential! But if you’d rather live your life a slave to society, I can’t stop you… OR CAN I?!?”, Smiley exclaimed, lunging at the boy with scalpel in hand. 

Seishi instantly grabbed the man’s wrist and started to twist until the scalpel fell to the floor with an adorable clink.

“Aaaaaaah! Careful! Careful! That’s my nerve-severing hand!”, Smiley whined, “Was only kidding! J-Just a little joke! Aha… tell you what, I’ll make it up to you! I’ll do your favor f-free of charge! Ahaa…”.

Seishi let go of the man with a smirk.

“That would be wonderful, I’m a bit short on cash at the moment”.

“Right… I suppose the big miser doesn’t pay you lot much, does he”, Smiley remarked, picking his scalpel off the floor and cleaning it with his coat.

“No kidding, I can’t even remember my last paycheck”, Seishi joked, not that the other man would understand. 

He lead the man down to the cell block, where the unconscious guard was still out cold on the floor of the bathroom, laying in a pile of drool. Doctor Smiley knelt down to pull the man’s hair and lift up the face. He examined it closely with by pinching and prodding it with his other gloved hand.

“Ew… very mooky. Mook levels are off the charts with this one... but I think I can work with this”.

“I mean, don’t make him a model or anything. I just need him to look different enough to not be recognized”, Seishi ordered, leaning back against the door with his arms crossed.

“You got it, boss! Hey, mind carrying him for me? These arms were made for precision, not strength, if you know what I mean”, Smiley asked, dropping the man’s face on the floor with a hard plop.

“Tch, if you say so”, Seishi replied, hoisting the snoozing guard up on his shoulders.

* * *

 

Forcefully, the bandages were ripped off of the girl’s face, revealing the spitting image of Maki Harukawa, another unfortunate girl she had never known. Not that she could tell, for she had no mirror and no indication of what had been done to her other than that her entire face was burning.

But the first thing she saw was a field of grass lit by intense bright lights, beyond it… the darkness of the unknown.

“Mhmm… finally awake, I see? Good…”, a shrill voice moaned behind her.

The girl turned and nearly collapsed at the sigh of such a monstrous figure.

She attempted to crawl away but he simply caged her in with his spider-walker. She felt around her body… she was wearing unfamiliar clothes and her hair was done up differently than it ever had been before. Just what in the world was going on…?

“Xin vui lòng! Chuyện gì đang xảy ra vậy!? Tại sao tôi lại ở đây!?”, the girl cried.

Mabue stabbed one of his metallic legs into the ground just centimeters from her skull.

“Enough! I don’t speak your dirty peasant language, so wipe the mud out of your ears and listen closely… we’re going to play a little game”, he said, leaning in real close, the sharp lighting of the field highlighting his grossest features.

“T-Trò chơi?”, she stuttered. 

“Yes… probably. If you can outrun my friends here… you’re free to go. Sound good? Eh, you can’t understand shit anyway, GUARDS!”, Mabue barked, awkwardly snapping his fingers.

Behind him, a pair of guard stood by. One of them took out a tablet and entered a passcode, the panel behind them sliding open slowly. The girl cowered in fear as unsettling sounds came from inside the building.

“Mhmmm, wonderful, aren’t they? Starved for weeks, poor mongrels. You wouldn’t deny them a fresh meal, would you? How heartless would that be?”, Mabue went on with a smirk, moving out of the way to reveal a horrific sight.

Dogs… atleast a dozen dogs. Severely malnourished, with scars all over their battered frames. One could infer a lifetime of suffering just from a single glance at these pitiful creatures. They were growling in desperation behind locked muzzles, eagerly bouncing around their cages.

The girl looked up at the man, her eyes begging for any semblance of humanity that might spare her. But all she saw were beady jewels that looked at her like she was merely a toy to be thrown away. With a tap of his holo-pad, a security drone flew in from the building and hovered next to him.

“Do make sure you put on a convincing performance. After all, you’ve got fans all over the world that are gonna wanna see this, mhmm”, Mabue instructed, his grotesque face positively beaming, as much as it could at any rate.

In an instant, his mechanical legs bent down to gain as much pressure as possible before miraculously lifting Mabue straight into the air and onto the helipad area above, where he could enjoy the show in safety. The pair of the guards ascended to the platform via ladder instead.

Mabue readied his command prompt, “Mhmm, lights, camera, action!”, he shouted, tapping a holographic button.

In an instant, the muzzles came off and the cages flew open.

Realizing the danger, the girl rolled to her feet and ran for the fence, knowing it was her only hope of survival. The dogs barked furiously, their stomachs commanding them to devour any flesh in their vicinity. The girl hopped onto the fence and got a foothold, desperately pulling herself up.

Within mere seconds the dogs were slamming into the fence, leaping with extreme fervor to gnaw at the girl’s ankles, only just barely missing. The girl tried to look away from their eyes… their sad, horrible eyes that conveyed years of abuse and neglect and knew only to eat whatever they could whenever they managed to.

Soon she made it to the barbed wire atop the fence, but that didn’t stop her. That was nothing compared to the threat of being eaten alive. As the drone swooped in close to get a better angle, the girl eviscerated her arms and legs trying to hoist herself up and over the barbed wire. Blood dripped from above onto the dogs below, which drove them even further mad.

They started chomping at eachother in a deranged frenzy, desperate for just a taste of blood. While they were distracted, the girl managed to flip herself over the wire, severely scarring her back in the process and tearing off the strange red and black clothes she didn’t remember wearing before.

The girl hit the ground hard, probably breaking something in the process but managed to have enough resolve left to push forward, even as the dogs clawed at her through the fence.

She ran as best as she could, nearly tripping over herself.

She did it, she thought. She got away. They wouldn’t be able to--

_ Chomp _ .

Her ankle felt a shock of burning pain.

_ Chomp _ .

And then her wrist.

_ Chomp. _

_ Chomp _ .

_ Chomp _ .

Before she could even process what was happening, her body was being ripped apart in an instant. Blood spurting every which way as the beasts dug their fangs into her flesh, tearing off chunks to viciously gnaw on as they fought eachother for every scrap of meat they could.

As the drone zoomed in closer, it captured the final moments.

Caught on video for the world to see… the death of “Maki Harukawa”.

  
**CHAPTER TEN** **  
** **END**


	12. Evidence of Humanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: The penultimate chapter of the arc.)

**Beyond Fiction**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Evidence of Humanity**

“...”

A figure, bathed in shadow, watched his computer monitor in silence.

The video had popped up out of nowhere, but was making waves very quickly. There were even auto-generated news articles about it, making it very difficult to escape hearing about it even if you wanted to. It wasn’t too long before the video started getting censored or deleted from public spaces for its gruesome content, but by that point the message had been made clear.

Maki Harukawa was dead.

The shadowy figure leaned back, crossed his arms and took a deep breath.

Behind him, there was another, more stout figure, who looked on in horror.

“W-Wha… What are we gonna do, boss?”.

There was a moment of silence.

The shadowy figure raised a single finger in objection.

“I choose not to believe this”, he said calmly.

“...Huh!?”.

“You heard me”.

“B-B-But it j-just happened! You saw it!”.

“Yes… that girl did indeed get torn to shreds”.

“T-That girl was…!”.

“Not the Maki Harukawa that I know”.

“...That you know?”.

“Of course. We watched the same show, didn’t we? Are you telling me you didn’t feel any connection to the characters on-screen?”.

“W-Well yeah but what does that…”.

“You know how fanart is all different? It’s drawn by thousands of different artists afterall, and yet most of the time, nobody has any problem identifying the character, even though they might not look like what you’re used to?”.

“Hey! Is this going anywhere?”.

“And yet sometimes you come across a piece of fanart that makes you doubt yourself… it kinda-sorta resembles the character you know but something is off about it. It’s not that its badly drawn but… for some reason it just doesn’t  _ feel  _ like the character you know, you know?”.

“B-But this isn’t fanart! This is real life!”.

“...Yet I’m getting that same feeling, curious”.

“Okay, but what if you’re wrong?”.

“...Then I’ll deal with that later. I couldn’t do what I do if I stressed out over every uncertainty. But we’re going to do some reconnaissance first…”, the shadowy figure said, typing away at a physical keyboard. How old fashioned, though perhaps it was due to their current makeshift circumstances.

They were set up in the dusty attic of an abandoned cottage afterall. Back in Saikyo City, these sorts of places would’ve been demolished a long time ago, but things were slower out in the sticks. 

The shadowy figure pulled up map data on a rather antiquated computer, searching around for anything that could have impeded the survivor’s path towards the coastal fishing port of Norihama they were stationed in.

There could only be one place.

“Mabue Manufacturing… Out of the frying pan, into the fire…”.

“A factory?”.

“Not just a factory, a prison…”.

“B-But they just escaped a prison!”.

“I know… how repetitive”.

“This is serious!”.

“No kidding… but I do have an idea”.

He pulled out more information from his own sources. Mabue Manufacturing was not the sort of place to give out too many details publically. They were largely unknown to the world outside of business connections that utilized their competitively priced services. The details of their operations were a matter for ‘insider’s only’, as it were.

“Ah… they’re also a fan of the SecuTech RAF-0294 drone model”.

“...You don’t mean--”.

“You know I do”.

“You’re sending her out there!? All alone!?”.

“Kego, it’s just a drone…”.

“She is not just a drone! She is a valued member of this company!”.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to throw away your own soda cans for awhile”.

“...Grr, I know it can’t be helped but… this is so not hot”.

“Most would say ‘not cool’...”.

“Most people don’t have to deal with stuff like this, man!”.

“Hot or not, we’re doing it. I’m sending the guidance protocol now…”.

When it was finished, the shadowy figure leaned back in his chair once more… this was all he could do for them.

* * *

 

_ Roughly an hour prior… _

“Mhmm, excellent… this will do the job just fine”, Mabue hummed to himself as the footage was uploaded to the internet.

A pair of guards were kneeling on the ground nearby, examining the fence.

“Man, they really did a number on it…”, one of them noted, looking at the large tear the dogs had made when bursting through the fence.

“Those hounds just popped a hole in this thing like it was nothing… good thing I’m not a prisoner”, the other said with relief.

The dogs had their collars activated once they were finished with their meal, injecting them with a tranquilizing agent so they didn’t run off into the wild. So all around the tattered corpse just beyond the fence, were a dozen unconscious dogs, looking more peaceful than they would ever be in the waking world.

If not for their deformed bodies, one could almost make the mistake of thinking they weren’t horribly depraved and vicious killing machines.

“Yeah, and looks like you broke the camera on your way up, boss”, a third guard said, picking up the cracked security camera off the ground and looking up at where it broke off from its bolted station.

“Tch. Whatever, that’s your job to deal with. Put in the repair orders and get those mongrels back inside”, Mabue ordered, his spider-walker carrying him away from the scene.

The guards sighed as they headed out, cautiously picking up the dogs.

“Hope these things don’t wake up on us…”, one whined.

“Just hurry up if you don’t want to be dessert”, the other shot back.

“Gah, gonna have to order another camera, there aren’t any spares”, the third guard complained.

“Who cares? It’s not like anything ever happens around here anyway”, another said dismissively.

* * *

 

Shuichi kept an eye out for the girls during the early part of his shift, envigorated by what he had discovered the night before. He needed to tell them about it somehow, but he didn’t think he was going to get a chance to do so as he toiled away, polishing small metal components with sandpaper and laying them out to be spray-painted.

Gan was across from him, humming a little tune to himself. This was apparently one his favorite jobs at the factory for how easy it was. Shuichi had to agree, compared to their previous assignments, it was almost relaxing by comparison, although no less mind-numbing in how unstimulating it was.

Evidently this was a common though, as the two garnered some disdainful glares when the assignment board revealed their randomized tasks for the day. But Shuichi could care less about what the rest of the inmates thought, his mind was too preoccupied with thoughts of escape. It was almost hard to put it aside, given how much time he was given to think while rubbing away at gears and plates.

He eventually managed to spot a familiar red bob across the floor, struggling to shovel ore into hefty carts. Shuichi bit his lip, wondering how he was going to deliver his message when they were in completely different sections of the work floor. But as luck would have it…

“No! Fuck you! This is crazy! I don’t belong here!”, a voice shouted, breaking through the ambience of the slaving workers.

“Get back to work, that’s an order!”, a guard barked.

“I don’t take orders from you! I’m supposed to BE one of you! I don’t belong here! I’m a guard like you, I swear!”, the deranged man snapped, flailing his arms about.

“Yeah, like we’ve never heard that before! Enough with the bullshit, get back to your station, inmate!”, another guard replied dismissively, shoving the man away.

“Is that you, Ebina? Is this your fault, you fucking prick!?”, the man said, taking a swing at the guard with a nearby wrench. The guard attempted to dodge, but the man pivoted and slammed his elbow up the guard’s jaw instead, causing him to bite his tongue.

As blood poured out, the guards drew their batons.

“Haw dya know mah nahm skum!”, the guard blabbered through bloody lips, taking a swing, only for the man to block with the wrench.

“BECAUSE I’M FUCKING SADAMI AND YOU ATE MY SANDWICH OUT OF THE FRIDGE LAST WEEK! NOW GIVE ME BACK MY FACE, YOU SICK FUCK!”, the man screamed as he jumped the guard and started beating him senseless with the wrench. The other guard tried to pull him off but received a faceful of fist for his efforts, causing him to tumble back into the soldering prisoner behind him.

The solder splashed into another inmate’s face, causing them to scream in agony as they ran around, knocking into a bunch of other workers, creating an enormous mess of angry fights breaking out across the center of the floor. The guards on the balcony above hustled to suppress the situation.

“RIOT! RIOT! DRONES, PROTOCOL TEN!”, one of them shouted.

As this commotion was happening, Shuichi took his chance. 

He ducked below the table and crawled through the chaos while the guards were distracted, hoping he didn’t attract the attention of the pair of drones soaring about, delivering electric shocks to the disruptive rioters. He was nearly trampled to death as he rolled into the ore-handling station, where he immediately spotted Himiko, cowering behind an iron cart.

“S-Shuichi!”, she whisper-yelled in surprise as he approached her. 

The other prisoners were either staying as far back from the action as possible, or getting right up next to it to cheer at the excitement they had normally been denied.

Shuichi leaned in close and whispered succinctly, “Himiko, what cell are you and Maki in?”.

Trying to calm herself down, she whispered back, “T-Thirty-seven”.

Giving her a nod, he replied, “Bathroom. Tonight”.

Himiko was curious but he slinked away before she could ask anything.

She figured it had to be really important as she watched him crawl back to the other side of the floor, ducking around the fighting inmates and panicked guards. Just what was he planning?

Within moments, the rioting prisoners were subdued by the drones and hauled off by a dozen guard staff. “Take these louts to solitary!”, one of them bellowed as the others returned to work as if nothing had happened.

Breathing heavy, Shuichi popped back up from under the sanding table and gave a slight thumbs up to Gan, who was just straight-up puzzled.

“What in the hell was that about?”, he asked.

“N-No idea… but lucky that it happened”, Shuichi said, exasperated.

‘ _ Something about his face being stolen? ...People really do go crazy in here _ ’, he thought to himself as he returned to work passively.

With order restored, the rest of the work day proceeded as normal.

* * *

 

“-And you see, Miss Harukawa was caught snooping around the perimeter and met an untimely end, courtesy of our watch-dogs”, Mabue reported, trying to put on as professional-looking a face as he could, which was not easy.

“So we’ve noticed…”, the chilling inhuman voice remarked on the other end of the video call. Once again, a silvery owl mask drenched in shadow, only those violent and unnaturally orange eyes piercing the darkness. This was Stryx, one of the most powerful people in the world.

“That must mean the other two are close! I’ve sent out hunting parties at once to flush them out! They won’t be ‘survivors’ for much longer, sir…”, Mabue lied, sweating profusely… well, more than usual, which was saying a lot.

Stryx tapped claw-like fingers on the ends of his armrests.

“...S-Stryx? Sir?”, Mabue shuttered, fearful his deception had been noticed.

The cloaked figure was silent for an uncomfortable amount of time, as if judging the very weight of Mabue’s soul, which for his own sake, he hoped matched the weight of his body.

“Perhaps you are not the fool I took you for… or perhaps you’ve simply struck fool’s luck. In either case, we are pleased. Although next time, please try not to make a public event out of it. We wish to handle this situation with due discretion… you do understand discretion, correct?”, Stryx said.

“O-Of course, sir! W-Won’t happen again, sir! I just got a little excited is all!”, Mabue grovelled, hating every second of it. The only way he could bear the humiliation was imagining Stryx himself being torn apart by rapid dogs. If only, he thought, if only.

“Very well”, were Stryx’s last words before the line disconnected.

Breathing a massive sigh of relief, Mabue giggled to himself.

The plan was going perfectly, the most difficult hurdle had been cleared.

Now all he had to do was--

The entrance to his chambers slid open.

“Ah, Maki-roll! There you are, right on time!”, he beamed, grabbing hold of the girl’s shoulder with a wide and sweaty grin. Maki glared at him with vicious intensity, but he only clamped down harder. Such slender shoulders…

“What is it going to be today?”, Maki asked sternly, suppressing her urge to spit in the man’s face, for fear he might enjoy it.

“Mhmm, I’m so glad you asked. Come with me, mhmm…”, Mabue answered without an answer as he plucked her off the ground and held her in his bulbus arms, the spider-walker carrying them across the chamber and through another huge sliding door.

“H-Hey! What do you think you’re doing!?”, Maki protested, struggling in his grip. But she could not overpower his sheer weight as he hummed along to himself. 

“Whatever I want, of course”, he replied cheekily, reaffirming his grasp on her, making sure to caress her back and thighs in the process, despite not being necessary to maintain his hold. So smooth…

Maki’s face turned bright red as her rage fumed, but she dared not act upon it. Mabue might be a mountain of lard but he was still dangerous in his own way, he had the advantage of gravity… and the spider-walker gave him both incredible mobility as well as a powerful offense.

So she grit her teeth and did not resist as he not-so-subtly fondled her, as they traversed the cold steel hallway into another, even larger chamber. As the door slid open, she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was like an entire indoor water-park… inside of the factory.

 Several vast pools, filled with shimmering blue water interconnected across the almost warehouse-sized area. There were smaller circular jacuzzis built into the floor, which was made from flawless marble so clean it sparkles slightly in the light. There were also a variety of slides, pneumatic tubes and platforms that would raise and lower in rhythmic patterns.

Maki’s brain was having trouble accepting a place like this existed just above the slave pens below. What kind of debaucherous events were held up here for the exclusivity of the elite, while the prisoners toiled away their lives below? It’s not that it was surprising to her, but seeing the disparity in person was almost sickening.

There were roughly a dozen voluptuous women splashing about in the water, as if on standby. Mabue marched forward, his mechanical legs clicking hard against the ornate marble floor. Taking in a deep breath, he screeched at the women, “CLEAR OUT, YOU HARLOTS!”.

Shaken by his sudden appearance, the women fled the area as quickly as their slippery bodies would let them and disappeared into individual side-rooms. For a moment, there was nothing but the almost calming sound of running water before the warden turned around to face the only girl left.

With an ugly grin, he spoke.

“Today I thought we’d try an old-fashioned swimsuit photoshoot, mhmm, what do you say?”.

She obviously wanted to say something like “Do you want to die?”, but refrained and simply bit her lip, stewing in frustration.

As a drone from on high flew in carrying the requisite swimwear, she was relieved to find that it was fairly normal, even sporting her signature colors. Under most other circumstances, it wasn’t something she would have a problem with. But when the only observer was Futoshi Mabue and random creeps on the internet… that changed things.

Taking it from the drone, she glared, “You’re not about to sit there and watch me change, are you?”.

Mabue chuckled, pointing to a sectioned off changing area in the corner.

“Why spoil the main course with dessert?”, he said, laughing at his own terrible joke.

Being compared to food made her start to resent food itself.

Reluctantly, and with much exaggerated body movement, she slipped out of her sweaty prison jumpsuit and into the almost disturbingly well-fitted bikini. She winced, if her measurements were listed on her own MonoPad, they must have been public information for the audience.

Her fists clenched as she looked at herself in the provided mirror.

She had never, to her knowledge anyway, shown off this much of her body to anyone before. The fact that the first one to see her like this was Futoshi Mabue made her stomach churn several times over. Suppressing the urge to vomit, she stepped out of the changing area.

As soon as she caught a glimpse of Mabue’s predatory eyes, she decided to look away. If he was going to envision all sorts of unpleasant things, she didn’t want to have to envision what he was envisioning. But that only made her hate the entire circumstance even more, not knowing what that sick bastard was thinking.

Maki was stuck in a loop of wanting to know and definitely not wanting to know. And that infuriated her beyond measure as she awkwardly walked forward toward the drone’s camera lens. From then on, she was instructed to hold a variety of poses both in and out of the water, some with props like beach balls, pool chairs and inner tubes. 

It was humiliating, and her face did not hide that one bit. But Mabue seemed pleased, as if her discomfort only made it better. As she heard the vibration of his crotch-plate, she nearly gagged, the mechanism behind it fairly obvious. Still, she forced the urge to slit his throat away as best she could.

After her joints were almost stiff from withholding so much resentment, she asked, “Is that all?” in a blunt tone.

Mabue’s face twisted into what could only be described as an attempt at a soft smile. “Actually… there is something I wanted to discuss. Mhmm, call it a proposition…”.

Maki’s guard was up, but it was not what she was expecting.

“I was thinking… you deserve so much better than those other peasants down there. A girl with such a splendid frame needn’t work herself to the bone day after day… how unjust is that?”, he began, his voice almost approaching cordial, although his inherent snobbishness was still very much present.

Maki scowled, ‘ _ Everything unjust about this hellhole is your fault, asshole. And you act like you’d be doing me a favor? _ ’.

“You should join my other girls in a life of luxury up here… I think you’ll find it preferable. Warm meals, warm bed, even net access! It’s as good as any five-star hotel, they’ll all tell you”, he continued, pacing back and forth with his spider-walker, the pointed legs clacking against the floor.

‘ _ And all they have to do is pretend to love you, huh? How pathetic _ ’, she thought.

Mabue giggled, “I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking that there’s no way in hell that you would ever even consider this offer. But I think I can spice this proposal up into a deal you can’t refuse…”.

Maki gulped in anticipation.

“If you agree to be my latest pet… I’ll let your little friends go free”, he said, stopping to face her directly.

Her eyes widened, “...What did you say?”.

“Mhmm… I think you heard me just fine”.

Maki stared down at her reflection in the still pool water.

She had been willing to trade her life for them before…

This time she didn’t even have to die… but still…

Was that really okay?

Could she live with being this man’s pet if it meant Shuichi and Himiko could go free?

Was she willing to make that choice?

Mabue rubbed his greasy hands together.

“I know it’s a big decision… tell you what, I’ll grant you some time to think it over. In fact, have the rest of the day off. Return to your cell and consider it… you’ll have a cushy life in my private suite and you won’t have to worry about your friends ever again. It’s a win-win, as far as I’m concerned, mhmm”, he told her, gesturing to the exit.

Maki silently changed back into her jumpsuit and left.

The decision weighing heavily on her mind.

* * *

 

Having travelled all day long, a lone drone descends upon the Mabue Manufacturing facility. The snipers were so preoccupied with looking outward, that they never thought to routinely observe the airspace directly above the facility. That was the weakness of a security effort meant to keep things in, not keep things out.

As it landed on the rooftop, the on-board camera performed several scan operations. These were not standard-issue for the unit and were the result of custom software running on the SecuTech frame. Without too much delay, it found what it was looking for. A signal jammer, meant to block all incoming electronic signals from reaching the factory.

The net connection within the compound was solely hard-line based, utilizing an underground cable infrastructure. Additionally, the system was housed on a private network, having strict protocols for interacting with the wider web. In short, it severely hampered outside interference.

The drone flew closer to the jamming device, which was mounted to the roof with a steel exterior frame to protect it from the elements. As soon as this footage was transmitted back to the drone’s operator, the next course of action was clear. It was time to hack the system.

Thus, the drone ejected a pair of metal arms from its central body… and punched the device with all its might, breaking it outright as it short-circuited. The hacking sequence complete, it retreated and performed further scans on the entire building. It would locate what it needed to and find a way inside...

* * *

 

_ Later on, in the breakroom. _

“-Huh? You’re still here? I thought you had a soccer match to get to!”, Seishi said in surprise, pointing an accusatory finger at the masked man currently cutting into a salisbury steak.

Doctor Smiley… well, smiled as he turned to face the startled guard.

“Ah, if it isn’t my favorite mook! Yeah, I did have plans, but it turns out the helicopter required some serious maintenance, so I crashed here for the night! Good thing too, soccer is so dreadfully boring…”, the good doctor replied, twirling his fork around.

“I keep tellin’ ya, I ain’t a mook!”, Seishi declared, slamming his fist on the table, causing the salisbury steak to hop for a second.

“You know what they say, acceptance is the first step to--”, Smiley was about to retort, before another guard peeked in the doorframe.

“Watchmen are requesting their evening coffee, could you bring it to them? Thanks”, they said, shutting the down once more.

Seishi groaned, although he supposed the grunt work was preferable to the slave labor he’d endure as a prisoner. As he went over the coffee machine, and entered the orders, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Doctor Smiley was peering over him with an unchanging grin.

“What do you want!?”, Seishi asked in annoyance.

“Hey buddy, you know what would be reeeeeally funny? Watch this!”, he said, reaching into his coat pocket and dropping a dissolvable tablet into each steaming cup of coffee, where it broke apart near instantly from the heat. Seishi grabbed the man by the necktie and shook him.

“Was that poison!? Are you trying to get me fired, you son of a--”.

“No no! I swear! Just harmless fun! A little laxative, that’s all!”, Doctor Smiley pleaded defensively. Seishi dropped the man with a mischievous smirk on his face, picking up the tray of coffee cups.

“I like the way you think, doc. They say coffee goes right through you, after all”.

“To wit, Mookington, to wit”.

“Stop calling me that!”, Seishi barked as he exited the lounge to deliver the drugged beverages to their recipients. Doctor Smiley sat back down, giggling to himself at the thought of his little prank.

* * *

 

_ Several hours prior... _

“Slow’n’steady kid, don’t make so much noise…”, Gan warned, watching Shuichi break apart the brick wall with their trusty chisel.

They were both fit snug in the crawl space behind the cells, Gan to the far end, Shuichi on the side they came from. They had been at it atleast two hours, ever since they were relieved of their shift. Shuichi wiped the sweat from his forehead and he kept at it.

He was already exhausted from a long day of work, but was determined to press onward. 

Shuichi mentally calculated the necessary distance by taking the length of a cell room and multiplying it by fifty-three minus thirty-seven. Since a cell was roughly ten feet across, he had to crawl down one-hundred and sixty feet from the opening in his cell’s bathroom.

“I told her tonight… so it has to be tonight. We have to atleast reach them…”, he muttered under strained breaths.

“Alright alright… want me to take a turn?”, Gan suggested.

“Fine, but please hurry”, Shuichi answered, handing him the precious tool.

They were keenly focused on their task, and desperate to stay as quiet as possible, so there was not much exchange between them as they went back and forth tearing apart the wall, removing only the bricks they deemed necessary. Eventually, they got pretty good at it.

They were tired and were sorely going to regret missing out on sleep, but another two hours later, they had managed to complete their objective, a pile of bricks shoved aside to reveal the thin sheet metal layer beneath. 

“Pry the seam down there, ya see it?”, Gan instructed.

Shuichi did so, sticking the chisel in the designated spot and prying it loose on their end, gradually pulling it upwards until it creased sharply, revealing the back of the mirror on the other end. The two exchanged excited faces as Shuichi reached forward and gently knocked on the back of the mirror.

For a moment, he was worried that they might have taken too long. But sure enough, the mirror was removed from the wall on the other end, revealing the faces of two very surprised girls.

“I d-don’t believe it…”, Maki stammered, almost impressed.

“S-Shuichi! Y-You really came!”, Himiko exclaimed.

The old man put a finger to his lips, “Sssssh, keep it down”, he warned sternly.

“Shuichi, who is this?”, Maki inquired, taking a defensive stance.

“Relax! It’s my cellmate, he showed me this secret passage. We can trust him”, Shuichi argued as he pulled himself through the cramped opening and fell to the floor with a thud.

Gan, not wanting to intrude, simply remained in the crawl space, poking his face through the hole.

“And what are you in for?”, Maki asked, wary.

“Uh, trespassing technically…”, Gan said, scratching the back of his head. That wasn’t the whole truth, but he didn’t want to get into the real reasons.

Himiko wiped away small tears as she fell to the floor.

“N-Nyaa… I was scared you weren’t coming”, she mumbled nervously.

“Sorry… we went as fast as we could”, Shuichi assured her with a smile… which looked a bit odd as his face was covered in dust and sweat.

The three of them took a brief moment to appreciate this. It had been several long, arduous days apart and just seeing one another unharmed was a great relief. It was Maki who broke the silence.

“So does this mean you’ve figured something out?”.

“We think so… there’s a maintenance hatch just down this passage. It leads straight into the exterior. We’ll need to carefully watch the security measures on the outside but we should be able t--”, Shuichi explained, before getting cut off.

“Wait, what does the outside look like? Can you show us?”, Maki interjected, weirdly high-strung.

“R-Right now? S-Shouldn’t we be more careful, Maki-roll?”, Himiko chimed in, nervously.

Maki bit her thumbnail, “I’m just saying we should scope it out… that’s all. You guys want to leave as soon as possible right? I don’t think your bodies can take much more…”, she said, choosing her words carefully.

Shuichi sighed, it was true. His entire body had been aching for days on end… willpower would only get him so far. 

“Are you coming with us, Mister?”, Himiko asked, looking at the elderly face.

“I… I don’t know, I…”, Gan stuttered, as the three kids looked at him expectantly.

Shuichi smiled warmly, leaving the decision in his hands.

Gan forced a wide smile, “Y-Yeah… I think I will…”, he said reluctantly.

No matter his fear… there was a part of him that couldn’t help but wonder.

What it would be like to feel a breeze again, to look out at the sea, to eat a warm meal and go just one day without forcing himself to the brink of exhaustion. It was a natural, human curiosity. The kind that can overpower any fear.

Maki stood up, “At the very least, we need to figure out what we have to deal with”. The others followed suit, and one by one they climbed through the opening and into the tight crawlspace. 

Shuichi lead the group down the path until they reached the cylindrical chamber with the ladder bars embedded in the wall. 

Himiko brushed herself off, “Nyaa… lot of cobwebs…”, she complained.

“Okay, once we open the hatch, we’ll come out behind a big wall where they keep electrical equipment. Be very quiet and don’t go past the edge…”, Shuichi informed them, feeling weirdly like a leader.

They nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Shuichi climbed up and released the hatch.

One by one they carefully ascended to the grounds.

Gan was the last one up, hesitating for a brief moment before poking his head up and over the boundary. His old eyes shined like they hadn’t done in a long time… there was green. A bright, vibrant green layer of grass… real grass… just the smell alone nearly put him into sensory overdrive.

He reached out and felt the blades.

That texture… he had nearly forgotten it, but it was all coming back to him.

As he pulled himself out of the tunnel and got on his feet, he felt the sensation of a light breeze run past his face. It felt incredible… and nearby made him tear up… it was such a simple thing but… it meant so very much.

“H-How long have you been here?”, Himiko whispered, noticing this behavior.

Gan was awestruck by these long-forgotten sensations, but eventually whispered back, in a tone meant more for himself than her, “...Too long. Far too long…”. 

He bent down, just to feel the grass once more. It was nothing like the steel he’d grown accustomed to… it was nature, it was real.

Maki peered past the edge of the wall and nearly gasped, tapping Shuichi on the shoulder.

“L-Look!”.

Shuichi bent over above her and took a look himself.

It was… how could it be.

There was a hole… in the fence.

He noticed some discarded springs on the ground and cranked his head up… there was a mount meant for a camera but… there was no camera. If it had ever been there… it was now gone. His eyes darted up and over to the corners of their field of view, to the watch-towers.

There was… nobody there. No guards. Nothing. No snipers keeping a watchful eye over the area… just where had they gone?

They had never expected this.

“It’s… It’s right there, waiting for us”, Shuichi mumbled in shock.

“I don’t know… should we… this is too sudden, too sus--”, Maki tried to say.

“Maki”, Shuichi interjected, “Look at this… we may never get a chance like this again, we have to take it…”, he argued. Overhearing this, the other two came to look and experienced the same surprise.

“C-Can we go? Is it really okay?”, Himiko wondered aloud.

Gan was almost too taken in by new sights to speak.

“Calm down, let’s think this through before we--”, Maki began.

_ The truth is out there! _

Shuichi felt his brain lurch. 

_ The truth is out there! Not in here, out there! _

‘ _ But… what if-- _ ’, he thought.

_ No! What good is a detective that doesn’t seek the truth? _

It was if there was a second mind attempting to overtake his own… but strangely, it still felt like himself. An argument between two of his own voices… one drastically overpowering the other. It started making so much sense… the answer was obvious.

It was his talent’s calling… he needed to know the truth of this world.

His vision blurred as he stared at the gap in the fence.

This wasn’t normal…

_ The truth… the truth… the truth… _

_ It’s my duty to uncover the truth! _

“We have to go…”, Shuichi muttered, standing up.

Maki grabbed hold of his sleeve.

“W-What are you doing!?”, she snapped, nearly breaking a whisper.

But Shuichi simply grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.

Panicked, the other two followed suit as Maki broke free of his grip.

They were out in the field now… the decision had been made.

Shaking her head, Maki gestured for them to follow as they made a dash for the fence. 

‘ _ What is he thinking!? If we’re seen, we could be-- _ ’, she thought as she grabbed hold of Himiko’s hand and helped her along.

Gan kept pace, but suddenly stopped.

It was almost imperceptible… but perhaps because his sense were locked into full alert due to the influx of new information, he realized it. 

He had heard the footsteps.

Not theirs.

There were other footsteps coming from far behind them.

In a fit of pure instinct, Gan reached out and grabbed Shuichi by the collar, yanking him back and thrusting him towards the building. The girls slid to a stop just as Gan grabbed their arms and flung them back as well. The three of them tumbled across the ground until they stopped just in front of the wall.

Gan swung his arm in front of him, staring them down intensely.

Maki didn’t hesitate, she tackled Shuichi as he attempted to run and dragged him back into the shadow of the panelling, Himiko desperately crawling behind them and out of sight. As Shuichi struggled, the girls latched on and held him back, his eyes becoming clouded with fear.

Gan turned away, just as a pair of people rounded the corner in the distance.

“I’m tellin’ ya sir, it’s the weirdest thing! The jammer on the roof is just busted! And the snipers all left their posts!”, a guard said, marching forward.

“Lazy ingrates! What do I even pay them fo--”, whined the voice of Futoshi Mabue, whose spider-walker ground to a halt as his eyes saw the great irregularity in front of him.

A prisoner… on the outside.

Mabue was so shocked by this, he almost didn’t react.

...Almost.

“G-Get him, you idiot!”, he barked, and the guard rushed past to tackle Gan to the ground and hold him down.

Mabue inched closer.

“T-This is impossible! Nobody… Nobody escapes my world!! Y-You… Who are you!? How did you get out!?! Tell me this instant!”, Mabue screamed, his face turning red from this sudden stress, a kind he had never dealt with before.

Gan stared up at the man… a man so bulbous he could barely see his face past the fat.

“I… I ain’t tellin’ ya nuthin’...”, he groveled, gritting his teeth.

“A-Are there others!? Who helped you!? H-How… Why… Grrr! Talk dammit! Talk goddamn you! Spill it!”, Mabue shrieked, stomping his legs on the ground in a frenzy.

Gan did not look toward the panelling for fear of giving it away.

He kept his eyes straight forward.

And his mouth sealed shut.

“W-Wait… I know you. You’re the old fogey whose been here since father was in charge… I s-see, you’ve had plenty of time to formulate this foolishness! But how… I don’t get it… my security is supposed to be perfect! This. Is. Not. Supposed. To. Happen! Ever!”, Mabue ranted, clenching his chubby fists.

Gan remained silent.

“Well… it doesn’t matter! I’m still up here! And you’re down there groveling at my feet! Nothing had changed! Whatever you’ve been planning, it ends here! Haha… Everything is fine... I’m still in control!”, Mabue said, trying to calm himself down as the sweat ran down his naked frame like a waterfall.

Gan looked up at his warden, his captor, the man responsible for keeping the entire world from him.

And he said, in no uncertain terms…

“You are nothing”.

Something snapped in Futoshi Mabue.

The color drained from his face as his arms went limp.

“N-Nothing…? Ha… Ahaha… AHAHAHAAAA!! N-Nothing!? I’m nothing!? No! That’s wrong! That’s very very very very very wrong! Y-You’re the one who’s nothing! You’ve wasted all your years in that box, while I profited from it! I live in luxury! You live in a cell! I’m SUCCESSFUL! I’m IMPORTANT! I’m EVERYTHING! It’s YOU who doesn’t matter! You don’t matter… You don’t matter one tiny FUCKING iota!”, Mabue raved, nearly foaming at the mouth.

Gan closed his eyes. 

He wasn’t worth it.

Mabue fumed, every muscle in his body, as dormant as they were, flared up at once.

“DON’T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, YOU CRUSTY WAD OF RAT SHIIIIIIIT!!!”, Mabue screeched as he effortlessly lifted a mechanical leg and brought it down on Gan’s skull, piercing straight through to the ground, blood bursting upward and covering his body.

Shuichi screamed, but Maki covered his mouth just in time.

His eyes bulged out of his skull, every neuron in his brain firing at once.

Mabue retracted his leg and kicked the old man aside like he was just a pebble on the side of the road. There was a gaping hole where a face once was, blood flowing out onto the grass, staining it a deep crimson.

Shuichi tried to break free from the girls’ grasp, to no avail.

Tears burst forth as his teeth chattered, his body going cold and numb.

He had clung to a hope… that had been his mistake.

This world was truly rotten.

The outside world could only be rotten if someone like Futoshi Mabue was allowed to exist in it! And lord over hundreds of people like they were just cogs in a money-printing machine! Shuichi felt something guttural take hold… something he hadn’t felt since he faced the entire world in the final trial…

Hatred.

He looked at Gan’s lifeless body… it was happening again…

Another person that had helped him so much… was gone.

And once again, he couldn’t do a thing to stop it.

There was nobody alive in the outside world who remembered Gan.

His family had long since passed on.

Nobody in the prison paid him any mind.

But his story… his suffering… his life… it was all pointless now.

It was like he never mattered.

Their fallen classmates would be remembered across the world.

Their deaths lead to a great change in the world, even if they would never know it.

But Gan…

Nobody. Nobody would ever remember Gan.

They would never know his story.

Nobody would ever know how he lived his entire life a slave.

Not a single person… except Shuichi himself.

As his body went completely limp, the girls carried him back through the tunnel, making sure to close the hatch behind them. As they sat together in the cylindrical chamber… Shuichi slid against the wall and cried. He buried his face between his knees and let the tears flow freely.

Why… why had he been so driven to escape then.

If he had just stopped to think things through…

This never would have happened.

But he didn’t… no… he couldn’t.

There was something… something in his brain that didn’t let him.

And that scared him.

He felt an existential terror that caused his spine to freeze over.

The girls looked at one another, unsure of what to say.

It was not lost on them that this was probably the only chance they would ever have to escape. And now it was gone. They would have to return to their cells and somehow pretend nothing had ever happened.

Maki grit her teeth… the proposition was all she could think about.

Himiko reached out and placed her hand atop Shuichi’s.

It felt… so awfully cold.

He looked up to see her try her best to force a smile.

Of course she didn’t feel like smiling… not when someone just died in front of her. Not when her friend was in such a dark place… not when all hope seemed lost…

But somehow… she smiled all the same. Because she had to.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Shuichi wiped away his tears… if only for a moment.

Despite everything… that smile had touched his heart.

He held her hand.

Maki took hold of his other hand.

The girls looked at eachother with uncertain eyes.

And they held one another’s hands as well.

They still had one another, for whatever that was worth in this rotten world.

No words were exchanged as they crawled back down the path.

Shuichi hesitated before slipping back in his cell bathroom.

He glanced at the girls, who could only give him a solitary nod each.

They parted ways.

Brick by brick, Shuichi rebuilt the wall.

Folded over the metal sheet.

Placed the mirror back on the sink.

And looked at his sullen, tear-stained face.

This was the face of the Ultimate Detective?

This was the face of the person who changed the world?

He turned away, not even wanting to look at himself.

Shuichi fell to the floor and leaned back against the wall.

He sat looking forward at the door.

How the hell was he supposed to sleep…

How was he supposed to carry on in this place… without Gan.

Ol’ Gan… he had no reason to be as kind to him as he had been.

Given his history… given his circumstance… he could’ve turned out bitter and spiteful. 

But he didn’t.

There it was… something any detective should recognize.

Evidence.

Evidence of Humanity.

Shuichi’s body tensed up as he hugged his knees.

Of course… how could the world be completely rotten?

If someone as good and as humble as Gan came from it?

And then… despite the tears… Shuichi’s lips curled into a faint smile.

‘ _ Gan… I’m sorry… I don’t know why I did what I did… But I’m going to find out. And.... Thank you… for everything. I promise… I won’t ever forget you. I… I’ll remember you even when I’m as old as you were… if I manage to make it that far… so… thank you… Gan… _ ’, were his solemn thoughts as he took a deep breath.

Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open.

Shuichi looked up, surprised.

He didn’t know what to expect… but it sure wasn’t this.

Before him was a lone security drone, floating in the doorway.

It couldn’t fit through, so it just hovered there, watching him.

A voice came from the machine.

One he never thought he’d hear again.

“Shuichi Saihara… there you are”.

“W-Who… Is it... Are you…”.

“Yeah. This is Akira Tsuchiya. And if you’re up to it… I still need your help”.

Shuichi stood to his feet, clearing his throat.

“...To fix this broken world?”, he finished for him.

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**END**


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